How difficult / easy is it for someone to enter your child’s school?

[Anonymous]

^Referring to my post, our school is one of the top public schools in the nation. Apparently the school board is one of the worst in the nation.

[Anonymous]

I am like a door whisperer. I can get into any building. Office, school, closed wings of museum, hospital. I could probably sneak into solitary confinement in a maximum security prison. No idea how I can do this. But it's been true since I was in middle school. Someone told me a week ago that my daughter's high school has locked doors, and I was shocked, as I honestly hadn't noticed.

Luckily for society I have no interest in killing or kidnapping anybody. But I can absolutely wander around any school I choose to walk into.

[Anonymous]

When we lived in Fairfax County, anyone could have walked into my kids' schools. We moved away for a few years. There is no way anyone can get in my kids' schools (elementary, middle, and high) here. Not possible. Only one door is used. You have to be buzzed into the safe room. You have to show ID even if you are at the school every day. And you have to be buzzed through a second door to enter the school. We have an armed police officer in the front office. No parents are allowed in the building during the beginning or end of the day. It's ridiculously tight. Same exact set up at all schools in our country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When we lived in Fairfax County, anyone could have walked into my kids' schools. We moved away for a few years. There is no way anyone can get in my kids' schools (elementary, middle, and high) here. Not possible. Only one door is used. You have to be buzzed into the safe room. You have to show ID even if you are at the school every day. And you have to be buzzed through a second door to enter the school. We have an armed police officer in the front office. No parents are allowed in the building during the beginning or end of the day. It's ridiculously tight. Same exact set up at all schools in our country.

So...you live in a war zone? Or next to a favela? I mean...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When we lived in Fairfax County, anyone could have walked into my kids' schools. We moved away for a few years. There is no way anyone can get in my kids' schools (elementary, middle, and high) here. Not possible. Only one door is used. You have to be buzzed into the safe room. You have to show ID even if you are at the school every day. And you have to be buzzed through a second door to enter the school. We have an armed police officer in the front office. No parents are allowed in the building during the beginning or end of the day. It's ridiculously tight. Same exact set up at all schools in our country.

I sub in Fairfax County schools and have never encountered this situation described above.

Let's also be honest, how many times do you approach your elementary school, ring the buzzer, get let in and another parent will waltz in behind you or simply walk in as you open the door to leave?

I am aware of some schools having a panic button of sorts. I won't describe in detail, but have seen it in action. Also, larger schools use walkie talkies for communication, complete with codes.

Please be kind and patient with front office staff. They're all feeling frightened and vulnerable right now.

Like the door whisperer PP, I pretty much can smile and charm my way to just about anywhere and have. I don't abuse this, but have often thought that if you look as benign and average as I do, you will override security.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Like the door whisperer PP, I pretty much can smile and charm my way to just about anywhere and have. I don't abuse this, but have often thought that if you look as benign and average as I do, you will override security.

This is a real concern. I shut the door in the face (he was about 8 steps away) of a person trying to get in behind me. I figured if he had access he could use it. But he actually looked so hurt that I didn't let his pretty, smiling face in. And to be honest - a year or so I would have. But it didn't hurt him to open the door himself and I felt more secure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Very easy at my daughter's middle school, because when? my husband wrote the grant, he wrote it for enough money for security systems for the entire county in addition to metal detectors. The school board refused to purchase the metal detectors no matter how much he argued for them (he was law enforcement, now retired). They said it made the schools "look bad". I once decided to see how easy it was, so I wore all black, a trench coat, a ball cap pulled low over my eyes, and walked up to the door. The janitor (who had never seen me before), said hi and let me in, since he had the door propped open with a trash can. I walked into the office and no one was watching the cameras. I went off on the receptionist, and told her my husband would be hearing about it, because the safety of the school was his business. He had to have a meeting with the SROs and the principal. If I could walk in dressed like that, anyone could.

You seem crazy and are a complete bitch. The receptionist didn't deserve having to deal with you. Nobody does.

[Anonymous]

You have to have a badge to get in most doors at my school and at the front door if you don't have a badge they buzz you in and you have to sign in, explain yourself, etc.

However, the security guy does not have a gun. Now, if they don't trust the security guy to have a gun, why would anyone think teachers ought to have one?

[Anonymous]

One main entrance where you are buzzed in and then you check in at the office. Other entrances are locked. I'm pretty sure that there is not one person in the office that could stop an intruder if they chose to just run down the hallway and let loose.

[Anonymous]

Basically if a student comes to school with guns in a backpack, he/she will get into the building. If you need a student ID, the student will have an ID to buzz him/herself in. If it's not a student, the front desk person will buzz you in. They make you sign in, but you're already in the building. Even when my kids were new to the school, I was buzzed in with no issues. Only a metal detector and armed guards will stop someone trying to get in. I'm not sure most people want that.

[Anonymous]

Do DCPS and DCPCS have any written rules or minimum standards on security provisions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The elementary school at which I teach is not easy to enter. I can virtually guarantee you that you would not find an unlocked exterior door during the school day. Some can be unlocked by fobs teachers carry. Visitors are "buzzed" through the main doors and there is a camera that feeds to phones on all desks in the office. The office looks out onto the entry foyer.

The HS has been pretty easy to enter, but perhaps it has changed recently. I went there a few weeks ago for a training and people parked in the back of the school near where we thought the training was. We just went and tried doors until we found one unlocked.

Re: the elementary school. So visitors have to be buzzed in...then what? I'm confident that anyone can push the buzzer at my son's school and be allowed in.

the most recent school built in our district have a lobby entrance with two sets of doors. So you buzz and get into the entrance area with the main office, and then they check you in and open the second set of doors.

There has been some scuttlebutt about retrofitting all the schools to have that setup, but it's hugely expensive to do so, so I can't imagine it would happen outside of an already planned upgrade or new construction.

[Anonymous]

It's problematic, because of the portable situation in MCPS and cameras that don't record all the time.

The front door is watched, and we have been told to dispense with the usual courtesy of holding the door open for the next person.

However, on the sides and back of the building, kids are going in and out of portables, there is no fence, nothing...

[Anonymous]

My kid's HS (public) is pretty secure. This is in Loudoun Co.

None of the doors are unlocked. You have to ring the buzzer at the main entrance and show your ID on the little camera to be buzzed in. You're then supposed to walk directly in the doors and across the foyer area to the main office. The main office is 100% glass, so they can see everything. Many times once you're buzzed in, one of the front desk attendants will open the office door and wait for you, as in watching you come in and making sure you don't just come in and start to wander. I've been there a few times where I've flashed my ID to get in and then seen them so busy in the office that no one was watching the cameras or holding the door open to watch/greet me, so I could have easily started wandering around. That's definitely worrisome and I wish the school's had a budget for a person whose job it was to specifically just watch the cameras and buzz people in instead of just random office personnel or a teacher who happens to be in the office at that time.

All of the side doors are locked and can't be accessed from the outside without someone on the inside opening the door. Even the gym doors are secured and the PE teacher has to unlock them before they can get back inside from outdoor PE.

[Anonymous]

Ds is in K and we live in an UMC but very small town in New England.

Only 1 door is used for entrance. You have to be buzzed in to get in the first door (video doorbell) Then you enter a foyer and once the first door closes, the receptionist buzzed the door to open that goes into the school. The receptionist is right there and you have to check in with her.

Granted, the majority of school shootings are done by current students, so none of that really matters. Can't say I would be too thrilled with an armed security guard and a metal detector