1. 12 KEYNOTES JANUARY 2016 WWW.ALOA.ORG
F
ire and life safety code advo-
cates, you’ve done your job.
Not a single kindergarten to 12th
grade (K-12) student death can be
attributed to fire between 1998 and
2012. In fact, it’s been 57 years since there
was a fire claiming more than ten lives
in a single fire incident in a K-12 school.
Now we need to turn our attention to
the threat that’s as confounding as it is
heartbreaking: active shooters. And just
as it took decades for the country to fully
bring schools up to acceptable fire and life
safety code compliance, the same scenar-
io will have to take place when it comes
to creating standards for active shooter/
classroom security situations.
CLASSROOMBARRICADE
DEVICES,LIFESAFETY
CODES,ANDTHE
DEVIL’SADVOCATE
Active shooters at K-12 facilities have created a
need for extra classroom security. By Vernon
Kelley, ICML, CPL, CFDI, CMIL, IFDI

2. WWW.ALOA.ORG JANUARY 2016 KEYNOTES 13
The reason that I’m comparing the
evolution of fire code compliance to the
evolving active shooter crisis in schools
is because many professionals in the
door hardware industry are very un-
willing to entertain “classroom bar-
ricade devices” as a measure to secure
classrooms during an active shooter
situation. I think that we need to be
more flexible in these situations — at
least in the short term.
Classroom Barricade
Devices Explained
What is a classroom barricade device?
I’ll take the opportunity to define it as
door hardware that’s designed to rein-
force and secure a classroom door using
non-traditional locking methods during
a school lockdown event (See Figure 1).
Generally speaking, a classroom barri-
cade device is some sort of arm or bar that
can be quickly attached to the inside of a
classroom door in an emergency. There
are even some devices that use the arm
of a door closer. No key or other tool is
usually needed to affix the device to the
door or to lock it in place.
And they’re usually not code compli-
ant. Not even a little bit.
So if they’re not code compliant, why
should life safety code professionals (me
included) even entertain using barricade
devices as a security measure? The real-
ity is that fire safety is not the issue that
it was 100 years ago. Now, active shoot-
ers have taken center stage in the threat
arena. Schools need to have a low-cost
method to protect students, at least until
nationwide standards can be established
as the country did with the implementa-
tion of fire and life safety standards.
Do I like barricade devices? Well, yes
and no. No, in that I don’t like nullify-
ing any life safety code at all since it’s
literally taken more than 100 years to
arrive at this level of fire safety in our
schools. Yes, in that lives need to be pro-
tected against gunmen who would shoot
up our schools as if it were some kind of
life-sized interactive video game — only
these targets don’t have the chance to
shoot back, and scores are measured in
body bags, not points.
Interim Classroom
Security Standards Ideas
To that end, I’d like to propose some of
my own interim classroom security stan-
dards for K-12 facilities.
1. Barricade devices can only be used
in buildings that are equipped with
a fire suppression system through-
out the building. We’re already ne-
gating life safety codes as it is, but fire
protection still needs to be factored in
and adhered to as much as possible.
We need to minimize any other poten-
tial impact to life safety where feasible.
2. Minimize impact to any other regula-
tions — such as accessibility codes — as
much as possible. Some barricade devices
are designed to be mounted in the floor,
which usually has some kind of bracket
attached to the inside of the door. This is
usually a violation of ANSI A117.1 Acces-
sible and Usable Buildings and Facilities,
which states that “door surfaces within
10 inches of the floor shall be a smooth
Figure 1. A classroom barricade device, such as the one shown here, is door hardware
that’s designed to reinforce and secure a classroom door using non-traditional locking
methods during a school lockdown event.
“Manyprofessionals
inthedoorhardware
industryarevery
unwillingtoentertain
‘classroombarricade
devices’asameasure
tosecureclassrooms
duringanactive
shootersituation.”
Figure 2. When considering barricade de-
vices, it’s important to minimize impact to
other regulations, like accessibility codes.
Devices such as the one pictured here
may not be ANSI compliant.

3. 14 KEYNOTES JANUARY 2016 WWW.ALOA.ORG
surface on the push side of the door.” A
giant U-bracket permanently mounted
on the bottom of the door is clearly not
in accordance of this standard (Figure 2).
There could be other codes that aren’t im-
mediately coming to mind, but I hope you
get the idea that violating some life safety
codes out of necessity doesn’t mean that
schools will have a blank check to do any-
thing they want in the name of security.
3. There needs to be a “sun-
set provision” for the use
of barricade devices. These
devices can’t be used in per-
petuity. Just like Uncle Sam
gave guidelines — and dead-
lines — for the implementa-
tion and use of ADA-friend-
ly doors and hardware, there
needs to be an expiration
date for when these devices
are deemed unacceptable for
classroom security.
A firm expiration date
will give schools the abil-
ity to secure classrooms in
an emergency for the next
five to 10 years while nation-
al classroom security stan-
dards are developed. This
will also give schools time to
secure funding to upgrade
their security systems and hardware.
4. The operation of barricade devic-
es needs to be simple and obvious.
I’m borrowing the phrase “simple and
obvious” from life safety code book
terminology for a reason: These de-
vices can’t be difficult to use under
duress. Training on how to use the
device shouldn’t take more than 90
seconds (Figure 3).
Is simplicity a must? You bet it is. Imag-
ine a teacher under great stress (and what
teacher isn’t these days?) fumbling with
some unnecessarily complicated lock-
ing contraption while bullets are flying,
sirens are wailing, the public address sys-
tem is blaring, and the students are cry-
ing (oh, and tweeting). The last thing a
teacher needs to contend with in a crisis
is Rube Goldberg’s latest invention: Great
for a board game; lousy for classroom
security.
Are you still unwilling to consider
barricade locking devices in schools?
Here’s a statistic that may sway you. As
I stated above, no K-12 loss of life can
be attributed to fire. During that time,
62 students have been killed during ac-
tive shooter incidents across the country
(Satterly Jr., S (2014) Report of Relative
Risks of Death in United States K-12
Schools).
I hope that you’re starting to think out-
side the box now.
It’s time for us to face the harsh and
morbid reality that deaths in schools
from active shooters is a much bigger
threat to students than dying in a fire. It
may be necessary to take one step back-
ward in the short term to take two steps
forward in the long term.
In my next installment, I’ll spend time
addressing college campus security.
Vernon Kelley, ICML,
CPL, CFDI, CMIL, IFDI,
has been involved in the
locksmith security in-
dustry since 1989, and is
a licensed locksmith in
the State of New Jersey. Currently, Ver-
non is the supervisor of access control
at the College of New Jersey and is the
first trustee for ALOA institutional lock-
smiths. He has specialized in institutional
locksmithing since 1995 and has more
than 15 years of association management
experience. Vernon is the co-author of
the book, Institutional Lock Shop Man-
agement, and is a highly sought-after
technical and copy editor by numerous
industry authors. He has taught classes
in life safety building codes, along with
impressioning and lock picking, and has
received numerous awards for his ef-
forts in the industry, including the ILA
President’s Award, the ILD-DVC Robert
C. Gress, Sr. Award and the esteemed Lee
Rognon Award. In his down time, Vernon
enjoys, gardening, fishing and playing
the guitar.
Figure 3. Simplicity of operation for barricade de-
vices is essential; training on how to use the device
shouldn’t take more than 90 seconds.
“Therealityisthat
firesafetyisnot
theissuethatitwas
100yearsago.Now,
activeshootershave
takencenterstage
inthethreatarena.”