Old locking system is an issue in local school safety

By Christina Hunter
Outlook Writer

A conversation that Leon County School Board member Maggie Lewis-Butler had with a Rickards High School student about safety around the campus shed light on one of the biggest concerns – lockdown at some of the older buildings — when it comes to protecting students.

 
That has become one of the major concerns for John Hunkiar, who heads up security for Leon County Schools.

 
Lewis-Butler said the Rickards student told her of gates that stay wide opened during school hours. Additionally, the student said teachers can’t lock their classroom doors from the inside.

 
Hunkiar responded, saying that older schools have the same issue with locks. The issue came up while he was giving the school board an update on safety measures being taken by LCS, following the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas School in Parkland.

 
The older schools, most built more than 50 years ago, could be cost prohibitive to have locks replaced, Hunkiar said, although they were installed to codes of their era.

 
“The doors don’t have the modern technology like access control that is electronic,” he said. “In order to retrofit all those buildings to bring them up to the modern code could be very expensive.” Nevertheless, given the current situation, new and advanced electronic door locks seems necessary for securing the schools’ properties and students.

 
“We have five major high schools and what they entail is adding electricity into each door and connecting all that together to a computer system. Which I’ve been told could cost as much as $200, 000 to 300,000 per school.”

 
The issue of not being able to lock a door from the inside in the case of an active shooter on campus is one that teachers across the country also have to deal with, Hunkiar said.

 
“Schools are built to code and so if the code says the door must open out into the hallway they have to open outside into the hallway,” said board member Joy Bowen. “I am for anything that is going to make our students safer.”

 
The issue of classroom doors isn’t limited to Rickards. Leon High School was established in 1831.

 
In the interim of possible upgrades, Leon’s administrators said there are options that could make the school safer.

 
“I think our biggest concern is reducing our entry and exit points,” said Billy Epting, principal at Leon. “This building that we’re in was built back in 1936 and we didn’t have those issues of school security.

 
“What we look at is to use creative ideas with fencing to funnel individuals, especially those who are coming from off campus, to give us a better advantage of monitoring.”