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TechnographInterior locks on doors could save lives in Va. Tech-like rampages
By Dena Potter, The Associated Press
Posted: 7/29/07 Section: News
BLACKSBURG, Va. - After a student gunman killed four of his classmates and his German teacher and then left, Derek O'Dell had to wedge one of his sneakers under the classroom door to keep the attacker from returning to kill even more.
There was no lock on the door to protect Derek and his wounded classmates against Seung-Hui Cho, who killed 30 students and faculty members, plus himself, at Virginia Tech's Norris Hall. Two others were killed in a dormitory.
Safety experts say that while school officials across the nation re-evaluate campus safety in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech tragedy, many are overlooking a simple solution: putting locks on the inside of classroom doors.
"Often it's the simple stuff that will prevent a tragedy like this, and often it's the simpler things that will make the bigger difference," said Michael Dorn, a campus safety consultant and author of 19 books on the topic. "It's not the complex systems that cost millions of dollars."
O'Dell was shot in one arm, but he and some classmates barricaded the door to Room 207 with his shoe and their bodies - "the heaviest thing in the room was bolted down and the desks were pretty flimsy," he said - as Cho returned twice to try to finish them off. When he couldn't get in, Cho stepped back each time and fired a round into the door, one shot penetrating O'Dell's black fleece jacket but missing his body.
"It's kind of crazy to think that you have 1½ or 2 inches of wood between you and a person with a gun who just killed half your classmates," said O'Dell, who is working at a veterinary clinic for the summer.
Colorado, the site of several school shootings including the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School, has lead the push to put locks on the inside of classrooms doors, said Vincent Wincelowicz, vice president for the Foundation for the Prevention of School Violence at Johnson & Wales University in Denver.
Most classrooms, including those at Virginia Tech, lock only by key and from the outside.
There was no lock on the door to protect Derek and his wounded classmates against Seung-Hui Cho, who killed 30 students and faculty members, plus himself, at Virginia Tech's Norris Hall. Two others were killed in a dormitory.
Safety experts say that while school officials across the nation re-evaluate campus safety in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech tragedy, many are overlooking a simple solution: putting locks on the inside of classroom doors.
"Often it's the simple stuff that will prevent a tragedy like this, and often it's the simpler things that will make the bigger difference," said Michael Dorn, a campus safety consultant and author of 19 books on the topic. "It's not the complex systems that cost millions of dollars."
O'Dell was shot in one arm, but he and some classmates barricaded the door to Room 207 with his shoe and their bodies - "the heaviest thing in the room was bolted down and the desks were pretty flimsy," he said - as Cho returned twice to try to finish them off. When he couldn't get in, Cho stepped back each time and fired a round into the door, one shot penetrating O'Dell's black fleece jacket but missing his body.
"It's kind of crazy to think that you have 1½ or 2 inches of wood between you and a person with a gun who just killed half your classmates," said O'Dell, who is working at a veterinary clinic for the summer.
Colorado, the site of several school shootings including the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School, has lead the push to put locks on the inside of classrooms doors, said Vincent Wincelowicz, vice president for the Foundation for the Prevention of School Violence at Johnson & Wales University in Denver.
Most classrooms, including those at Virginia Tech, lock only by key and from the outside.
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Jonathan
posted 7/29/07 @ 11:58 PM CST
With having been in Atlanta prior to and during the Olympic Games, there where several drills at the high school (Roswell High School) and I am sure at other schools where the intercom was used to signal to teaches of a threat in the school in my school the signal was "teaches check your grade books" at which point the teaches locked all classroom doors, pull shades over windows including the windows in the door and proceeded to move all students against the wall adjacent to the door to avoid potential guns shoots through the doors. (Continued…)
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