Tell me about the security measures at your DC's school.

[infomama]

I think ours is lacking (basically a doorbell and then buzz....your in) and the Principal is giving me a line ("it's like this everywhere"). I don't think she is right.

[elektra]

There isn't really any kind of lock down on the elementary school campus. There is a gate that they close at night and a fence all the way across the front. However, I can walk into the gate an right onto the campus, bypassing the office if I wanted to.
I do think this is not unusual for many schools here in CA. Many schools here do not have a completely enclosed building with hallways- the hallways are non-existent it's just a bunch of buildings with doors to the outside.
It's how DD's school is and how my elementary school was as well.

ETA: The policy is that you check in at the office first, sign a paper and get a pass, but it seems fairly easy to bypass that if you really wanted to.

[LBW]

That's our school - ring the bell and the office secretaries buzz you in. All visitors are supposed to go straight to the main office. Not sure how they enforce that, however.

[KrisM]

Our elementary schools lock all doors 10 minutes after school starts, except for 1. That one forces you through the office to get into the building. You have to sign in and talk to someone before getting any further.

[Green_Tea]

That's our school - ring the bell and the office secretaries buzz you in. All visitors are supposed to go straight to the main office. Not sure how they enforce that, however.

:yeahthat:

Same here. That's how all eleven elementary schools in our (suburban, low crime) town work.

ETA: There's only one door to go in. All the other doors are locked 24/7 except as exits.

[Indianamom2]

Our elementary schools lock all doors 10 minutes after school starts, except for 1. That one forces you through the office to get into the building. You have to sign in and talk to someone before getting any further.

:yeahthat: This is the situation exactly at DD's private school. It's not foolproof, but it's better than nothing. It also helps that with such a small student body, the office staff usually knows everyone on sight, so someone different would be unusual.

[o_mom]

Elementary - front doors are open, but all others are locked during the day. Depending on the school (there are 11 elementary schools in the district - I'm familiar with four of them and at least two others are based on the same floor plans as those), the front doors are directly in front of the main office, or off to the side, but still within view of the front desk. You are supposed to check-in at the office with either a picture ID or a key tag they issue that links to your ID. In practice, there are times when someone could slip in unnoticed, but in general, they will see you. Also, the teachers are very good about stopping anyone that doesn't have a badge. I have had staff stop me in the hallways in the winter when my badge was on my shirt, but covered by my coat. Also, the schools have cameras in the hallways and on the doors, so there is video.

Preschool - front door is open at pick up and drop-off times, locked all other times and you have to be buzzed in.

[egoldber]

That's our school - ring the bell and the office secretaries buzz you in. All visitors are supposed to go straight to the main office. Not sure how they enforce that, however.

:yeahthat:

[TwinFoxes]

I think ours is lacking (basically a doorbell and then buzz....your in) and the Principal is giving me a line ("it's like this everywhere"). I don't think she is right.

What would you like to see?

[vludmilla]

The elementary school that DD attends is like yours...a doorbell and they buzz you in...there is a video camera so they can check you out before buzzing you in. The entry door is also right next to the glass enclosed principal/main office. At the school district where I work, the elementary school main entrance is unlocked and there is a teaching assistant at the front desk who asks you to sign in and clears you to be in the building.

[swissair81]

The doors are locked, and you need to be buzzed in. All the staff wear name tags and students are not allowed to open the door for anyone under any circumstances. Also, I think the entire premises is on video camera. In the case of DD1's school, the State Police is also next door, and many times they have an officer park across the street during pick up and drop off times.

[Corie]

At my kids' schools, ALL the doors are locked 24/7 except for
the main front door. You MUST go through the main door to get into the building. You talk to the school secretary when you enter the front area
of the office. You sign in and get a visitor name tag. Then, she
will buzz you through a locked door to get in the school.

I'm actually pretty pleased with our schools' security.

[Canna]

There's a doorbell and they buzz you in. You sign in and get a stick on name tag.

[wellyes]

I thought this was going to be about the school shooting today in Ohio. It was a student. I am more nervous about risks within the school than random strangers walking in.

[elliput]

No doorbell or locked door at DD's school. Some of the side doors are left unlocked during the day for recess access. I walk right in the front doors and could walk right by the office if I really wanted to. Visitors are supposed to sign in and get a name tag though the parents who are there frequently usually aren't wearing one. I usually don't get a name tag when I go.

ETA- there are security cameras at every door and monitoring the parking lots and playgrounds.

[daisymommy]

Our elementary schools lock all doors 10 minutes after school starts, except for 1. That one forces you through the office to get into the building. You have to sign in and talk to someone before getting any further.

:yeahthat


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[crl]

None. Visitors are supposed to check in at the office and get a badge to display. Many regular volunteers don't bother, though I always do. That's it. And we are in a big city.

They do practice lock down drills. The kids pile together in a place that is far from the classroom door and are supposed to be silent. They also have fire drills and earthquake drills.

Catherine

[mom2binsd]

Once school is in session the only way in the front door, which is locked. They buzz you in and you must sign in.

All volunteers wear a badge and have had a background check done (this doesn't happen on days where there are classroom parties though, as there are too many parents and it's crazy!).

We have security cameras in the parking lot and at all doors/and a few pointed at the playground.

There aren't any fences around any of the schools here (midwest small city).

[infomama]

I thought this was going to be about the school shooting today in Ohio. It was a student. I am more nervous about risks within the school than random strangers walking in.

In elementary schools I worry more about outsiders. That being said..it all scares the crap out of me.

[sariana]

There isn't really any kind of lock down on the elementary school campus. There is a gate that they close at night and a fence all the way across the front. However, I can walk into the gate an right onto the campus, bypassing the office if I wanted to.
I do think this is not unusual for many schools here in CA. Many schools here do not have a completely enclosed building with hallways- the hallways are non-existent it's just a bunch of buildings with doors to the outside.
It's how DD's school is and how my elementary school was as well.

ETA: The policy is that you check in at the office first, sign a paper and get a pass, but it seems fairly easy to bypass that if you really wanted to.

:yeahthat: This pretty much describes our ES, except there is no fence across the front. There are gates, but I don't know if they even get closed most of the time. We were on the playground Sunday; we could have walked right up into the main campus, though all classrooms have doors that lock.

[snowbunnies300]

I can walk right into the school at any time. I think the door by the parking lot is locked during the day but all other doors are open. There are no security cameras either.

You are suppose to walk down a long hall to the office to sign in etc.. I mostly do not as I just go to my boys' special ed rooms. We are a smaller rural school (around 90 to 100 kids per grade). I have never been stopped. I have walked right by the office and not stopped in and was not called in by the secretary who smiled as I walked by.

[SnuggleBuggles]

I think ours is lacking (basically a doorbell and then buzz....your in) and the Principal is giving me a line ("it's like this everywhere"). I don't think she is right.

Same as my school. You are supposed to report to the office and sign in but there is t much enforcement.

Ds2's school has a code to enter but then you are free to be anywhere. You need a code to leave too.

[Twoboos]

The two elem schools I have been to have you ring, they look at you with a camera and buzz you in. You're supposed to go right to the desk and sign in and get a visitor badge.

One school, the door opens right into the office so you have no choice but to stop. The other one, office is to the right and you could go left so I don't know how they enforce that one.

Not sure how it works in the other elem school, MS or HS.

[infomama]

What would you like to see?

I like Corie's set up.

[maestramommy]

Ours sounds similar. You go in, and there is a "waiting area" where you sign in, state your business, and you are buzzed in. The entrance to the K classes are in that hall too, and only someone with an ID card can get in. When I visited a few years ago I was told they made these changes after 9/11, I *think*.

This is a very safe town. Not much happens. The police blotter is pretty routine. But I think with school shootings and stuff happening around the country, they decided it was best. Now this is the K-4 school. I don't know what it's like at the upper levels.

ETA: our setup sounds just like Corie's. The secretary can see you through this window. No camera, you're basically standing 3 feet away from her.

[JamiMac]

At my kids' schools, ALL the doors are locked 24/7 except for
the main front door. You MUST go through the main door to get into the building. You talk to the school secretary when you enter the front area
of the office. You sign in and get a visitor name tag. Then, she
will buzz you through a locked door to get in the school.

I'm actually pretty pleased with our schools' security.

:yeahthat:
Ours is just like this, but a computer generates the nametag after you sign into it.

[lhafer]

At my kids' schools, ALL the doors are locked 24/7 except for
the main front door. You MUST go through the main door to get into the building. You talk to the school secretary when you enter the front area
of the office. You sign in and get a visitor name tag. Then, she
will buzz you through a locked door to get in the school.

I'm actually pretty pleased with our schools' security.

THis is how it works at my DD's school as well. There is a fence around the entire playground as well. When you sign in, they ask for your driver's license and make a copy of it.

Her school was built 2 years ago.

[quinnsmom]

That's our school - ring the bell and the office secretaries buzz you in. All visitors are supposed to go straight to the main office. Not sure how they enforce that, however.
:yeahthat:

This is ours too. There are two sets of doors that are open 7:30-8:00 where different grades enter to wait to go to their classrooms. There is a teacher/administrator standing at those doors the whole time they are unlocked. At 8:00 those doors are locked and the gate is closed and locked that leads to the drive behind the school. So anyone dropping off after 8:00 has to go to the front doors to get buzzed in and sign-in. The front school doors are always locked. The same doors are unlocked at dismissal too with teachers standing there. And if there is an after school activity going on - there is usually an adult sitting in a chair by the doors.

ETA - there is a camera and audio at the front doors so the secretary can see/talk to whoever is buzzing at the door. I am happy with this policy. I feel like they are aware and on top of things. Living in Memphis everyone knows its not the safest city and there always seems to be something going on in the area. My son still talks about the "bad men" from last year's lockdown when two armed men hopped out of their car and took off after being chased from the highway by police- all this right at the corner near the school. Its a yearly occurrence unfortunately.

[KrisM]

At my kids' schools, ALL the doors are locked 24/7 except for
the main front door. You MUST go through the main door to get into the building. You talk to the school secretary when you enter the front area
of the office. You sign in and get a visitor name tag. Then, she
will buzz you through a locked door to get in the school.

I'm actually pretty pleased with our schools' security.

Curious on the locked doors 24/7. Does that mean you don't have any after school activities there? No PTO meeting, girls scouts, etc? Our schools keep the door near the office unlocked for these things and lock the office so that people go directly into the school. It always seemed odd to me.

[TwinFoxes]

I like Corie's set up.

That does seem more thorough. I was asking because I don't have much school security knowledge. :)

[ett]

The front door is always unlocked. You sign in at the office. All the other doors are locked during the day except during school drop off/pick up times. I suppose if the people in the office are chatting you could have a person sneak in without signing in. But we are in a very safe town, and I've never heard of any problems with it.

[quinnsmom]

The safest setup I've seen was at my first teaching job in 1997. It was a fairly new school. There were 5 buildings all set in a circle formation and the entire school was surrounded by high fencing. There was an admin/library building, 6th grade building, 7th grade building and 8th gr building. The 5th building was the cafeteria/gym. The only way in the school was through the administration building. You had to be buzzed in and sign in. To get to any other building. You had to walk a long hall to get out into the center courtyard - to choose a building to enter next. Cameras were in every hallway and in the courtyards. There was a full time police officer there daily.

It sure was safe but when I first started working there I couldn't help comparing it to mini-prison. Now that I am a parent, the paranoid part of me would be fine with the prison-like setup as long as it provided safety.

[Clarity]

I'm comfortable with the system at dd2's preschool/daycare center. A camera system is used at the door and Parents are buzzed in by instructors or the director.

Now, at dd1's elementary school, all the doors are locked to the outside except for one door that enters into the hall next to the principal's office. I think that's relatively casual. I know that I've walked past the office to speak to a teacher that I saw in the hallway. I was never stopped but I suppose that they may have recognized me by then.

[MamaMolly]

Well obviously my kid is going to school in Ft. Knox. Or maybe Alcatraz. ;)

Let me preface this by saying we are outside the US. And nearly every home here has a fence with razor wire or barb wire or spikes going around it. And just about everybody has grills on windows and doors. And a house alarm. I'm not sure if it is prudent or paranoia, but it is what just about everyone does/has.

So it is not all that unusual that at Lula's school it has a razor/spike topped iron fence surrounding the driveway and buildings. There is a guard who uses a clicker to open the car gate for drop off. He's there all day. There is another door with a mag-lock that leads to the classroom area, which is a circle of buildings surrounding a central courtyard. When I've gone in during the school day the guard will take your name and click you into the classroom area. You have to be buzzed out by either the secretary or the guard. There is a camera/keypad/intercom system at the interior gate.

[carolinamama]

At DS1's public elementary, the doors are unlocked and you are supposed to go straight to the office to check-in and get a sticker with your picture/name/reason for visit. I'm sure it would be entirely possible to walk into the school and skip the office.

At DS2's small preschool, all the classrooms have their own entrance from the outside. They are kept unlocked during school hours and I know last week when we had a few days of great weather, DS2's door was open at times. The toddler and baby classrooms entrances are behind a latched gate but that's safety to prevent them from escaping, not someone coming in. Honestly, it's never bothered me in the 4 years we've been there but I tend to not get worked up about things like that. The teachers know everyone and do keep a close eye on the kids and don't take safety too lightly. One day when my mom went to pick up the kids (she had before and was listed on their sheet as allowed to take them) the teachers wouldn't release the kids to her without talking to DH or me. Their policy is to always check unless a note comes in since family dynamics could change.

[MamaKath]

We have a fenced campus [at the school I work at]. It isn't locked because of fire standards. The doors to the building are locked however and a visitor can only get in through the main door to the office. There they sign in. The secretary then buzzes where you are headed, etc.

I have been pretty horrified by the lack of security at our local public schools. The elementary schools have 2 doors to each classroom, one leads outside the building and one leads to the hall. They have no surrounding fence so animals and people can easily enter the property. It is a fairly rural area so many are along main thoroughfares and can be accessed by numerous entrances. Some do have cameras but they can only be seen by specific employees and only from their desk computers. It gets more lax in the middle and high schools unfortunately here.

[AnnieW625]

I think ours is lacking (basically a doorbell and then buzz....your in) and the Principal is giving me a line ("it's like this everywhere"). I don't think she is right.

Ours has a doorbell that you get buzzed in through and a large rolling electric gate that locks when school is in session.

[Tondi G]

At our school you ring the bell and the office personnel see you on a screen (sometimes ask what they can help you with) and then buzz you in. All visitors are supposed to go straight to the main office, which is the first door you pass in the hallway (the door is usually open). All the other doors and gates to parking lots are locked during the day except during school drop off/pick up times.

Our principal just had slatting installed on the chain link fencing to provide more security/privacy and is doing all she can to create a more secure campus.

[YouAreTheFocus]

At our current preschool we have keycards that must be swiped for the door to open. The last one had a keypad above the handle, so you had to know the code to get in.

[niccig]

The only open entrance is the front door by the receptionist. There are 2 gates with a security code on them. The code for the front gate is changed every school year and given out to families. To get DS from aftercare, I have to put the code into the gate lock. During the day, the gates are locked from outside, but open from the inside.

[maestramommy]

Curious on the locked doors 24/7. Does that mean you don't have any after school activities there? No PTO meeting, girls scouts, etc? Our schools keep the door near the office unlocked for these things and lock the office so that people go directly into the school. It always seemed odd to me.


I've been there for meetings after school, and yes, you still have to go through the main door, and get buzzed in. I've been there in the summer to take Arwyn for speech, and you STILL have to get buzzed in. The only exception was last year when they were doing a lot of renovations in the front, we went through the back and her SLP propped open the door with a sign so we knew where she was.

[klwa]

Is this elelmentary school or daycare? Either way, it's more security than at ours. At the daycare, there's a doorbell that chimes when you walk in, but nothing else. At the school, there's one door left unlocked during the day. You walk in it, up the steps, and into the office to get your name tag.

When my niece was in elementary school (10ish years ago), I went to pick her up one day. Walked right in the school, right into the office & there she sat in the nurse's office. By herself. I had to wait 5-10 minutes before anyone came into the office so I could chekc her out. She had no idea why we didn't just leave. I was mad as fire leaving that place due to the lack of secuirty. (I mean, who leaves a 9 year old in the nurse's office by herself?)

[mom2khj]

Elementary school.

All doors except the main ones are locked from the outside (you can exit, but not enter). Half of the school is the offices/cafeteria and the other half is the classrooms. There is a main hallway dissecting them. The offices are all windows and you can't get past them without signing in, unless you are a volunteer who has a badge.

Volunteers must pass a background check and have a permanent ID badge. Anyone else entering the school must have an ID on file (license or state ID). You have to present it every time you visit and they print a name tag with your picture, name and the location of where you should be going (cafeteria/classroom/gym, etc), and you have to sign in stating where you are going.

They have the ability to lock off all the classrooms from the other half of the school, so during events when lots of parents are there at once (awards ceremonies, etc.) that occur in the cafeteria, they lock off the classrooms and do not make everyone get name tags.

You must turn in your name tag and sign yourself out when you leave.

I'm very happy with the security at our school.

[khalloc]

At ours you just walk in the front door. You are supposed to sign in at the office and get a name tag. I feel like you could probably just bypass that if the people in the office were busy...i guess its basically no security.

[ilfaith]

Our boys attend a private Jewish day school and preschool that are attached to our synagogue building. There are three main entrances (one for the temple, one for the day school, and one for the preschool) each has a buzzer and security camera. Visitors to the preschool and day school are required to sign in at the school offices (although regular volunteers such as myself are generally just waved in). The entrance from the main building to the preschool has a keypad where a security code must be entered in order to open the door. All other doors to the outside (playground, deliveries, etc) have the same keypad...each door has its own code.

The campus also has an officer from the Jacksonville sheriff's office on duty at all times.

[fivi2]

Public elementary

All door locked at all times. You buzz, office lets you in, you go sign in. They scan drivers license and print badge with your license photo. Multiple cameras everywhere. They also practice lockdown drills. They will unlock /prop doors for special events like pta meetings.

[smilequeen]

The front door is open and the rest of the doors are locked during the day. The secretary sits at her desk right by the front door. It's a small private school...if you are a parent or a regular grandparent (my mom is a regular too) she will know you. I can just walk in, say hi, and head to wherever I need to go. Anyone else is going to be stopped at the door.

Honestly, I think it's enough for our particular school. I'd feel differently if it was the huge public school or if the neighborhood was different. But our school is small, and it's a family. We all know each other, so the front door security is enough. Now, after the secretary goes home, the front door is locked and the after hours teachers have to buzz you in.

[MontrealMum]

At my kids' schools, ALL the doors are locked 24/7 except for
the main front door. You MUST go through the main door to get into the building. You talk to the school secretary when you enter the front area
of the office. You sign in and get a visitor name tag. Then, she
will buzz you through a locked door to get in the school.

I'm actually pretty pleased with our schools' security.

The school that DS will attend is similar to this, though I'm not sure about the name tag thing. I've only ever been there because of an appointment and the office is right next to the main door so I didn't go any further into the building. The play area outside is entirely fenced in and locked. There were some incidents at local elem. schools here a few years back and they're all like that now.