With the school year well under way now, we are reading reports once again of deranged people attacking innocent students and school staff. One local school district is to be commended for taking a practical and relatively inexpensive step toward making schools safer.
All classrooms at Upper Lake Elementary and Middle Schools have had keyless inside door locks installed. Gun-wielding intruders can now be kept out of classrooms without the someone having to step outside with a key, and potentially into the line of fire, to secure the door. Many lives would have been saved in last spring”s Virginia Tech shootings if the classrooms had had inside door locks.
The Upper Lake Elementary District School Board and Administration deserve public recognition for their efforts to make schools safer. The other school districts in Lake County would be wise to follow ULESD”s lead for the benefit of the whole community. Ideally, the California State Legislature should take action to make inside door locks mandatory in all public school classrooms.
Steve Harness
Upper Lake
