School officials are under immense pressure to increase security in their schools. But in the absence of a national standard or even an official list of recommended best practices, many school districts are making decisions on their own and some of those decisions are enhancing their lockdown capability at the expense of day-to-day life safety.
All manner of retrofit security devices that allow for lockdown are being marketed to schools whose tight budgets and lack of understanding often lead to purchasing devices that are not code-compliant. Many of these devices fail to comply with requirements for egress – requiring more than one operation to release, not being mounted between 34 inches and 48 inches above the floor, requiring tight grasping, pinching, and twisting of the wrist to operate, or requiring special knowledge and/or effort. Access to classrooms by first responders or school staff is frequently restricted by these devices. They also often create the risk that an unauthorized person could gain access to them and initiate a lock down to facilitate far more common crimes like assault, vandalism, theft, and sexual assault.
In response to this growing problem, the Builders Hardware Manufacturers Association (BHMA) has recently submitted a code change proposal for the 2018 International Building Code and International Fire Code that would address classroom locking in new and existing buildings respectively. The proposal would require all Group E classroom doors to be lockable from the inside of the classroom without the need to open the door. It does not specifically prescribe how the door is to be lockable from inside the classroom, although it notes that, “Door locksets with ‘classroom security function’ are readily available today at essentially the same cost as traditionally-used ‘classroom function’ door locksets.”
The following code changes are proposed.
1010.1.4.4 Occupancy Group E Classrooms. In Occupancy Group E, classroom doors shall be permitted to be lockable from within the classroom without opening the classroom door. All the following conditions shall apply:
1. The classroom door shall be unlockable and openable from within the classroom and shall comply with Section 1010.1.9.
2. The classroom door shall be unlockable and openable from outside the classroom by the use of a key or other credential.
1010.1.4.4.1 Remote operation of locks. Remote operation of locks complying with 1010.1.4.4 shall be permitted.
The proposal also suggests adding the following definition in Chapter 2 of the IBC:
Credential, Lock. A tangible object, knowledge, or human physical characteristic required for locking and / or unlocking. A key, to operate a lock cylinder; a magnetic card, to swipe in a magnetic card reader; knowledge of a specific code, for keypad operations; and a fingerprint, for a fingerprint scanner; are examples of credentials, and their potential uses.
The need to ensure free egress as well as authorized access from the ingress side of the door makes many of the retrofit security methods unsuitable for use in a classroom. Locksmiths should guide their customers to choose the product that allows for lockdown in the event of an incident, but is also code compliant.
