Vancouver Reviews School Access Control after Newtown

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“Law enforcement personnel have indicated clearly that locking all exterior doors in a school does not reflect current law enforcement wisdom with respect to school security,” says a Vancouver board of education report by associate superintendent Scott Robinson.

Following the massacre at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Conn., the Vancouver Board of Education moved for a district-wide security review, which was followed by the report by Robinson:

“In the event of an emergency, law enforcement personnel need easy access to a school and it is problematic for those personnel to be limited to a single entrance. In addition, it has been pointed out that children on the playground need easy access to their school in the event that an outside threat exists.

“To lock all doors except the front entrance could potentially limit their ability to escape an outside threat,” the report continues, as reported by The Vancouver Sun.

The report does recommend, however, that classroom doors remain locked and that schools review procedures for communicating with emergency services and the district ensures all classrooms that to not have direct access to emergency services have a clear communications plan in case of an emergency.