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Saturday, December 22, 2012

If They Can Have A Safe Room At A Fire Station, Why Not ALL Schools?

I had this thought today I thought I'd share with all of you.

Have you ever been to the new Fire Station 16 at night?

The only way you can access the building is to enter a "SAFE ROOM". The Safe Room doors lock behind you. Once you are in there you have to be buzzed in or out. The room has bullet proof glass.

IF they can provide this for a Fire Department, why haven't they been installed in every School across America?

I've added the above image to go along with a comment I recently put up on this Post. The door knob simply disappears when locked. 

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great idea...although with multiple entry points in every school, along with the issue of a possibly fire, would probably delay any sort of thing from actually coming to fruition.

JoeAlbero said...

I saw a door handle the other day that was quite impressive. When locked the door handle actually goes into the door flush with the door on the outside. It pops out when the door is unlocked. In other words, there is no way to open the door and turn the handle when locked because the knob simply isn't there.

As far as a fire goes, simply use fire exit bar doors from the inside.

I'm no expert at all of this but I think if we all put our heads together we can make schools a whole lot safer then they are today.

Anonymous said...

The new Fruitland has the "safe room" at the front entry. Residents can enter and pay their Municipal bills at a pay window, but can't get past the bullet resistant walls/ doors.
Wi-Hi has panic bars and a talkbox to the office who can see you on camera and activate the magnetic latch strike to let you in. Or, you just let the student on the other side of the door hit the panic bar for you to let you in. They usually will...

Anonymous said...

That design and idea is fantastic. But as you can relate to this issue it's obvious that our fire fighters are more important than our children. So if Obama tries to come to my home and take my gun, my grandchildren will have no grandfather, for I will die for their freedom! Let's hope that the President will make an intelligent decision. He should not panic nor should we.

Anonymous said...

4:46 PM

Calm down gramps! He's not comming to your house. He's simply going to cut your medicade to the point you expire on your own.

Anonymous said...

All of these seem to be great ideas, but remember the shooter last week was considered a highly intelligent kid and had also been a student familiar with the school, only a few years before? Maybe any or all of the suggestions presented herein could somehow be incorporated with a full body metal detector scan, so the person viewing the visitor/visitors who want entry could be scanned, and if deemed a threat, locked in that room by the school person in charge of controlling the access of visitors. No harm/no foul should a mistake be made until police arrive to check the visitor out. Either way, the ideas presented on this thread make more sense then armed guards, because armed guards would just be a momentary distraction and the first ones killed as the potential killer proceeded with his plan.

Anonymous said...

Somewhat of a ironic difference of values but, the last time I was in the office of Social Security in Georgetown, there was a uniformed, armed guard there the whole time. I've never seen the SSA pay anyone in cash so I don't really know who they are protecting from what. Why don't we simply move SSA offices inside of schools? It might give these guards something to do other than polish their bullet.

Anonymous said...

Several of these killers were goth members. Wounder what goes on with that?

Anonymous said...

Unless it's bullet proof glass it doesn't matter about buzzing in!

JoeAlbero said...

anonymous 6:03, I said bullet proof glass. I spoke with Congressman Andy Harris tonight about the idea and I stated they should have a metal detector inside the room for additional safety. He loved it and said he'd be presenting the idea to congress immediately.
I added, think of the mind set of the criminals. Once they realize in their mind that they could easily be detained inside of one of these rooms they'd never even think of going into another school again. I added that the door handles can be placed on every classroom door. Once the children enter the class the teacher can pull on the handle and the outside knob would be gone. This is a very inexpensive way to secure our children from any outside danger.

Anonymous said...

why is there a safe room in a firehouse? in case the building is on fire? in case the dalmation goes postal? or maybe sometimes the guys just need a little privacy to polish their "equipment"? i'm just askin'.

Anonymous said...

"why is there a safe room in a firehouse?"...
Well, because SSA guards regularly attack firemen? Or maybe this is where SSA guards reload?

Anonymous said...

Our schools should be the most important.

Anonymous said...

Great post Joe. This shows great leadership on your behalf.

Anonymous said...

This should be a fundraiser for all local PTA Groups. Safety first!

Anonymous said...

Oh yea I thought they kept all the money from the county in there, I’d take my chances at PnC before The firehouse

Anonymous said...

You have a "good head " on your shoulders Joe!! I hope this will be done. NO Child should have to fear being killed by some "crazy" out there. They should be made feel safe & secure in our schools!!!

God help Us! ----- I am so thankful I grew up in the 50's !!!----What a wonderful way of life we had. The worse fear we had was if we did wrong at school---what our parents would do to us when we got home!

P ADAMS said...

Yeah and i cant even get the front doors locked in dorchester county elementary schools... X 2 MONTHS,UN FN REAL.

Anonymous said...

why does the fire dept need it? oh thats right it is a top priority target for the terrorists. i forgot that. thanks sjd

Anonymous said...

Of all the ways I've heard of protecting schools and others , this is the best idea.
I'm hoping this will make to the White House.

Anonymous said...

Ok perhaps that will protect the children's safety somewhat inside the school BUT a person with the will to harm will just start shooting on the school's play ground, or jumping on school buses, or shooting at the car lines. There is no way to assure safety for anyone - let alone a child.

Anonymous said...

Since my last comment I have researched the “retractable doorknob. For one thing, these door knobs are very clearly signs that someone is in fact occupying the room - since they have to pull them from the inside in the first place. At my child’s school all doors for entering classroom have glass in them

In 2007 technology like this was advertised as a new security tool. Nowhere on the internet can I find these for sale, only demo pictures dated in 2007.

On the surface, it makes sense. If the doorknob isn’t there, an intruder can’t get in, right? Wrong. To draw an analogy to IT security, having a retractable doorknob is like having user account without a login. If the intruder can only get in through the door, then you blocked the bad guy. However, the security of a system is only as strong as the weakest link. Having a doorknob that is sometimes absent only prevents someone from coming in through the door. They could still break a window, or shoot the lock, ir maybe kick the door in,

This invention does not significantly enhance security, nor is it ADA compliant.

Anonymous said...

The "Safe Room" was Gordo's idea. Hey you had to spent the 10M somehow!!! He was worried about the area surrounding the station.
Remember Gordo...we are trying to forget.

Anonymous said...

Gordy and Hoppes told everyone the safe room was for the public passing by, like if a lady was being followed.

Anonymous said...

@2:03 pm

a "lady" on Cypress Street????

lmbo

Anonymous said...

We have to to focus on logistic possibilities.My view on this is the same as 4:18-Too many entry points for this to work well.We can't create a prison like environment of access and entry and expect our children to be at ease.