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Sandy Hook. CVPA High School. Covenant School – Nashville. And now Silver Rail Elementary. They all have something in common. The active killer shot out a window near a door or the window of a door to gain access to the building. I wrote about this same topic 18 months ago. Securing the doors and entry ways into a school with a security film of some sort is one of the two easiest ways to deny a killer entry into an area where potential victims are located. And yet here we are again. The killer in this incident shot his way into the school and had immediate access to a special needs classroom. And people, especially the families of the victims, want to know how this could happen.
So why are we still having this conversation? I encourage you to go read this article I wrote last year. In it, I wrote: “Today, there is ZERO excuse for not hardening the entryways into our schools. NONE. We have building and fire codes for everything, but we still haven’t made hardening the school against an active killer a legal requirement. But even if it isn’t a legal requirement, I think schools have a moral obligation to spend the money and harden the entryways to their buildings. Especially when there is grant money available. How, you ask? One way is to install security film on the glass at the entryways. Shooting out glass to enter a school is not an isolated event. It has happened before. I spoke about this incident last year. Hardening the entryways to a school is not rocket science. But some school administrators refuse to take these matters seriously. I’ve spoken with school administrators and have given active shooter presentations to school administrators several times. Some of them just don’t get it. In one of those conversations I was told, “we aren’t building a prison” when I brought up this topic. That is a direct quote. I was recently given a tour of a brand new school and I was horrified by what I saw. The other Officers I was with had the same thought as I did – it’s a shooting gallery.”
It’s nothing new. The recommendations for security film has been out there for YEARS.
Since the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission Report in 2015:
Since this memo to the Illinois Board of Education Chairman in 2016:
Since the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency K-12 School Security Guide in 2022:
Since the New York State Education Department Safe Schools by Design Act in 2025:
And even now in the State of Ohio’s Facilities Construction Commission School Design Manual:
But the problem is they are always a recommendation, not a requirement. For the life of me, I cannot figure out why the lawmakers in D.C. and in the state Capitols across the country cannot agree on a comprehensive school safety standards legislative act. I’m not sure what it is going to take to get schools to voluntarily start doing this, but I hope whatever it does take happens soon. I saw that the family of Rhoam Summer (the 5 year old who was killed) has hired three different law firms to see if there was any civil or criminal culpability involved in Rhoam’s death and if there was, by whom. Which begs the question – Was refusing to add the security film negligence? Did that refusal cause the school to fall below a standard of care that was owed to Rhoam and the other victims? Maybe that is what it will take, a school district that is successfully sued into oblivion because they chose not to institute a simple security measure. I wish I knew.
Think about this for a second. Go back and watch the security film video again. Imagine what would have happened if the killer at Silver Rail had been denied entry when he shot the glass. Could he have eventually gotten through? Yes. It would have taken more shotgun blasts and a lot of physical force, but eventually he could have gotten through. But the people inside would have had more time. More time to lock down. And maybe, Kaylub Giamanco would have found the killer outside and stopped him before he ever got into the school.
But the Silver Rail Elementary and the Bend La-Pine School system officials have another question to answer and the answer is not immediately clear from all of the articles I have read. In the first part of the article I mentioned there were two easy ways to deny entry into an area where potential victims are at. The second way is to have a policy that requires the classroom doors to be closed and locked when children are inside. Remember back to 2024 and the active killer event at the Appalachee High School in Georgia. In that case the killer left his classroom to go the restroom, where he got his rifle ready. The classroom door automatically closed and locked behind him because it was not propped open. When he returned to the classroom he knocked on the door to be let back in. Another student looked out the door window at him before opening the door and saw the rifle. So she did what any sensible person would do. She left the door closed. Unfortunately, the door to the classroom next door was open, so the killer just started shooting people in that room. He went on to kill four people and wounded nine more.
Part of every school’s lockdown plan is this – the teacher locks the door, covers the window and turns out the light. Why? To deny the killer access to the room and a visual target through the door window. But that only works if the teacher knows what’s going on and has time to actually lockdown.
We know from Becky Drury’s (a teacher injured at Silver Rail) statement that she went out of the classroom to check on what was happening and by the time she realized what was going on she had been shot and the killer was able to follow her back into the classroom. What we don’t know is whether that door was propped open. And if it was, did the school policy allow the teachers to do that. And even if it was a policy violation, would it have mattered if it was closed and locked? What do you mean would it have mattered? Well, I’ve been in a lot of schools in multiple districts and I can tell you that some schools have classroom doors that will not, under their current configuration, keep a killer out of a classroom. Or at least will not keep them from shooting through the big huge window in the classroom door. Because if a killer does shoot out that glass, the glass will crumble into a million pieces because it has no security film. And then the killer can just reach in and push the door handle down to open the classroom door. Because pushing down on the handle unlocks the door. But what about the active shooter locks that were installed? Well, that will keep the door from opening, but the window in the door is so huge that the killer can just climb through. Or lean in and see into the only “safe” corner in the room. Where everyone is undoubtedly hiding. Which just became “unsafe”.
Let me be clear – I do not fault any of the teachers that were there that day. I fault the administrators and the school board. I fault the legislators that have refused to address this issue, especially when they wast taxpayer money on stupid projects – like paying $600 million for a new football stadium. If I was one of the victims’ family members I would be asking the same questions they are. The only fix to this is a legislative fix.
Let me end by asking you this – When is the last time you took the time to look into your local school board members before you voted for them? When is the last time you even paid attention to the security at the schools where your children go? If your only interest in school security is whether or not the school has an SRO, you are missing the point.
