On April 16, 2007, on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia, Seung-Hui Cho, a senior at the school, shot and killed 32 people and wounded 17 others in two separate attacks. Among the casualties was engineering professor Liviu Librescu, a Holocaust survivor, who bravely tried to keep the door to his classroom closed while his students escaped. He was killed by gunfire through the door.
I was a teacher of natural sciences at Upper Lake High School from 1978 through 2010 and have been substitute teaching in the Upper Lake Union High, Lakeport Unified, Kelseyville Unified, and Ukiah Unified School Districts for the past year.
After the 1999 killings at Columbine High School in Colorado, Upper Lake High teachers were issued guidelines for dealing with a gunman on campus emergency, the first step being to lock the classroom door.
At that time the door could only be locked with a key from the outside, making the teacher a prime target for any gunman outside.
Once the teacher was down, an armed intruder would have unimpeded access to defenseless students inside.
Following the Virginia Tech attacks, I thought that all Upper Lake classrooms were equipped with inside door locks.
My classroom was fitted with a push and twist inside lock, the best kind. Many inside classroom door locks still require the use of a key, so that students inside would still be vulnerable absent a teacher, and the keyed inside door locks are also tricky for substitutes to master.
In my year of local substituting,
I have been in four local classrooms still lacking inside door locks: three in Kelseyville Unified and one at Upper Lake High School. Citizens interested in keeping the students and staff safe from armed intruders should encourage their local school board to consider mandating keyless classroom inside door locks.
It wouldn”t be a bad idea if this requirement was made statewide.
Steve Harness
Witter Springs
