Know-How: Door/Entry Systems

June 1, 2007
Properly secured doors make it difficult for unwanted visitors to enter school and university facilities.

The main function of exterior doors in a school facility is basic: keeping classrooms, offices and other school spaces inaccessible to outsiders without permission to enter and making sure students, staff and others can exit the facility without difficulty or delay when necessary.

How a school or university delivers on those fundamental requirements can involve many decisions involving facility design and equipment selection.

The National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities (NCEF) has compiled a comprehensive safe school checklist that gives administrators guidance on how education facilities should install and equip doors to provide the most effective building security.

The key goal for exterior doors is preventing unauthorized access into a school building. The checklist spells out numerous ways to accomplish this. Exterior doors should have as little exposed hardware as possible; their hinges should have non-removable pins. The doors should be made of steel, aluminum alloy or solid-core hardwood. Door frames should be installed without excess flexibility to deter vandals from prying them open.

Exterior doors should not rely on key-in-knob or other protruding locking devices, the checklist says. Exterior door locks used as the primary means of security should be mounted flush to the surface of the door. Exterior glass doors should be fully framed and equipped with breakage-resistant glass.

For panic-bar latches on exterior doors, install pick plates to prevent tools or plastic cards from releasing the bolt. Exterior doors with panic push bars should have tamper-proof deadbolt locks to prevent vandals or intruders from exiting easily after school hours. Key-controlled exterior doors can be equipped with contacts so they can be connected to a central monitoring and control system.

Exterior exit-only doors do not need handles and locks protruding on the outside, the checklist recommends, but in an emergency, school personnel should have a way to open the doors from the outside — with an access-control card, for instance.

Some other door features and strategies that schools might consider to enhance security:

  • Minimize the number of doors.

  • Equip all exit doors and gates with emergency exit hardware; do not lock or secure doors by other means. “Under no circumstances may such doors be otherwise locked or chained shut,” the checklist says.

  • To detect any outsiders entering a building when students open a door from the inside, schools can install door alarms, sensors or video monitors at vulnerable locations.

  • To determine who is at an exterior door trying to gain entry, schools should consider exterior doors with narrow windows, sidelights, fish-eye viewers or cameras. Position the windows and sidelights so that an intruder cannot open the door if the windows are broken.

  • Install exterior doors that are designed to resist thrown or wind-blown objects.

NOTABLE

1

In inches, the minimum length of a deadbolt lock recommended to secure a school's exterior swinging doors.
Source: NCEF, Safe School Facilities Checklist

Sponsored Recommendations

How to design flexible learning spaces that teachers love and use

Unlock the potential of flexible learning spaces with expert guidance from school districts and educational furniture providers. Discover how to seamlessly integrate adaptive ...

Blurring the Lines in Education Design: K–12 to Higher Ed to Corporate America

Discover the seamless integration of educational and corporate design principles, shaping tomorrow's leaders from kindergarten to boardroom. Explore innovative classroom layouts...

Room to Learn: Furniture Solutions for Education

Preparing students for the future. Utilizing our experience in the education market, we offer a dynamic selection of products that pair technology with furniture to help stimulate...

Transforming Education: A Case Study in Progressive Classroom Design

Discover how Workspace Interiors and the Baldwin School District reshaped learning environments in Long Island, New York, creating pedagogically responsive spaces that foster ...