Intruder Rooms- Are Your children Safe Yet?

 

Intruder Room

My wife asked our grandson about school. As part of his response, he told about the new "Intruder Room." Have you seen them?

I used to work as a psychologist in schools. You can imagine we dealt with some horrific situations. Most of us care about our children and all those fine teachers and staff trying to provide a safe learning environment. 

I've been in some schools in the past few years and I wondered how safe they would be--especially when a school shooting would hit the news.

It's a new school year now. After labor day, students and teachers ought to be engaged in learning again.

Now there's something new to learn.

How does an intruder room work? How safe is it?

I'm a bit skeptical having grown up when we were told to get under our wooden desks in case the Russians dropped a nuclear bomb on us.

I asked  Bing's chat-- here's what I got.

____________________________

An intruder room is a safe space designed to protect students and staff from an active shooter or other intruder. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has guidelines around door locking and fire alarm systems that help ensure the safety of students, teachers, and staff in the event of targeted violence threats. Starting with the 2018 edition of NFPA 101®, Life Safety Code®, the Code contains rules that allow safe door locking to prevent intruders from gaining access while ensuring that people can still readily evacuate in an emergency. Doors need to have the ability to be unlocked from outside the classroom to permit entry by staff or first responders¹.

There are also products like the Hide-Away Safe Room which can provide safe haven for students, faculty and staff in the event of an armed intruder. It installs in the front of a classroom, behind the chalkboard or whiteboard, and only takes up 19″ of floor space from the wall².

I hope this helps.

_________________________

Well, I still don't know if it will help. But I really don't want a violent assault to happen just to test the value of an intruder room.

Then, I thought about college safety. Before I retired, I taught for a dozen years.

 I found quite a list of campus safety items.

Here's a link-- too much to quote-

A School Emergency Kit Checklist - Campus Safety (campussafetymagazine.com)

I do wish everyone in school a safe and happy year!

Geoffrey W. Sutton, PhD is Emeritus Professor of Psychology. He retired from a clinical practice and was credentialed in clinical neuropsychology and psychopharmacology. His website is  www.suttong.com

 

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