Lock, Don’t Block: Aligning Classroom Security with Partner Alliance for Safer Schools (PASS) School Safety and Security Guidelines

Why School Administrators Should Avoid Using Barricades for Emergencies

Introduction: A Common Pitfall

Barricade devices refer to any supplemental hardware or product designed to restrict the movement of a door, typically deployed in specific situations. These devices may include permanently installed components affixed to the door, as well as temporary solutions such as placing a fire hose over the door closer. Any item added to a door with the intent of limiting its movement qualifies as a barricade device.

Barricade-type devices appear in several forms, all of which share the same fundamental problem: they are not traditional door hardware and often violate egress, accessibility, and fire code requirements. Some common examples include:

• Security sleeves that slip over the door closer arm, preventing the door from opening. While simple in appearance, these devices are out of reach for most occupants, making them difficult or impossible for students and teachers to deploy or remove quickly. They block authorized personnel from entering and can trap occupants inside during an emergency.
• Supplemental locking devices, including bolts, bars, or other gadgets mounted within normal reach range on the door or attached door hardware that allow a teacher to “lock down” a door from the inside. These devices often require multiple motions to release, are not intuitively locked or unlocked, and may be difficult or impossible for individuals with limited dexterity to operate, creating Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accessibility violations.
• Floor-mounted barricade devices, which must be inserted into or removed from the floor manually. These devices often require bending or kneeling, again violating ADA standards, and they create tripping hazards when not properly secured.

Each of these products may be marketed as a “simple” lockdown solution, but when deployed, they override the life safety and accessibility features built into the door and locking hardware. These devices can transform a code-compliant classroom into a non-compliant and potentially dangerous environment in seconds.

At the Capital Gazette in 2018, a shooter used previously installed barricades to block a rear exit, trapping victims and delaying rescue despite police arriving within two minutes of the emergency call. In Pennsylvania’s West Nickel Mines School and Colorado’s Platte Canyon High School shootings, barricaded doors also enabled attackers. It’s also important to remember barricades are not up to security code standards and are deemed one of the top ten K-12 safety and security pitfalls (see PASS Guidelines, page 11).

In most successful school incident responses, locked doors were essential to thwarting or at least minimizing a threat. Code-compliant locks have successfully countered attackers in many instances, but they rarely make it into the news headlines. Even such tragedies as Sandy Hook Elementary can attest to the importance of locked doors. Sandy Hook’s first grade teacher was able to lock her students inside her classroom, and the shooter passed by her door. Most recently, officials reported that the back-to-school mass shooting in Minneapolis this past August would have been much worse had the doors to the church been unlocked.

Locks. Lights. Out of sight. Most of us know this mantra from lockdown best practices.

Still, to some, on the surface, barricades seem like a good way to stop intruders within limited school safety and security budgets.

Here we clarify why the most cost-effective safety choice to use barricades is not the best — or safest — option for students and staff.

Hidden Costs of Barricades

For school administrators, budget pressures are real when the time comes to assess upgrades to security protocols. For less than $75, schools can buy hardware that allows anyone inside a classroom to bolt a door shut. As Amber Jarvis-Wilson, a safety consultant in the school safety and security industry on behalf of PASS member dormakaba, noted, “This ‘easy’ answer to remove one-motion egress could be much more costly than utilizing code-compliant locking devices.” These costs are not always monetary, either. For instance:

• Forced Entry Damage: Schools could potentially face thousands of dollars in damage to doors, frames, flooring, and walls if first responders must breach a barricaded door. Multiply that by every classroom that is breached, and the cost skyrockets.
  
• Psychological Trauma: Students and faculty who are trapped inside a barricaded room during a crisis can experience mental and emotional trauma, not to mention the emotional cost to students and staff who return to the damaged scene. The long-term cost of counseling and recovery support often falls to schools or private insurance policies, which likely cover only a certain amount. Consequently, schools may land in the middle of harsh legal action.
  

Unintentional Consequences of Barricades

Across the country, state legislators and local code officials have introduced bills and proposed amendments to building and fire codes that would allow the installation of classroom barricade devices. These proposals are often driven by the understandable desire to increase security in schools, but they overlook the complex interplay of fire, life safety, and accessibility codes that already govern classroom doors.

Unfortunately, some manufacturers of these products claim compliance with building and fire codes — claims that are misleading at best. These devices are not traditional door hardware and therefore do not meet the intricate set of life safety, fire, and accessibility codes that apply to door openings. Too often, manufacturers extract a single portion of a code or standard to imply compliance, while disregarding the many other applicable sections. This creates confusion and a false sense of security for schools that believe they are protecting students when, in reality, they may be introducing greater risk.

Additionally, one of the most dangerous misconceptions is that threats come from outside the school: 

“According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FBI, outsiders are not the biggest threat to students; students are the most likely people to commit violence on school grounds.” 

In fact, approximately half of school shootings are committed by current or past-enrolled students or staff (U.S. Government Accountability Office).

• Trapped With the Assailant
  
  While the goal is to block the perpetrator from entering a school building before any harm can be done, research suggests they may already be inside the barricaded room. This means barricades can actually empower an attacker. “The students know the building, the lockdown protocols, and where to hide that the schools use during an event,” said Erin Wilson, learning strategist at dormakaba and member of the International Code Council Means of Egress Technical Committee. If a student attacker can barricade themselves inside a classroom, they have more time to harm others and prevent rescuers from reaching the injured.
  
  As Jarvis-Wilson explained, “An attacker could use the barricade devices to lock themselves in with peers, who can then not as easily escape. This gives the intruder more control and responders less access. We’re back to the issue of lost time.”
  
  When manufacturers promote non-code-compliant devices, they unintentionally enable exactly this scenario. A single locking function can save lives when applied correctly, but a barricade device, especially one without easy egress, turns a safe room into a trap.
  
  
• Unintentional Blocking: Barricades Don’t Discriminate
  
  On the surface, these “blocks” feel like protection against an intruder. But in reality, they violate fire and accessibility codes, lock out the first aid personnel from entering, and prevent teachers from intervening in student-on-student violence. Simply stated, barricades can block anyone from entering — including emergency personnel (especially in cases of a student suffering a seizure, asthma attack, or allergic reaction, when every second counts). 
  
  According to these figures, it is 1,200 times more likely that a fire will occur in a particular school than an active shooter event.  This demonstrates why it is important to consider fire protection, life safety, and egress IN ADDITION TO security in schools.
  
  Barricades also block the egress of any building occupant in an emergency that requires immediate escape, such as during a fire, student-on-student violence, or other hazardous events.
  
  
• Panic and Time Wasted
  
  Other considerations are the time and clarity of mind it takes to set up a barricade in a classroom. When barricades are the preferred choice of a safety protocol, they are often required to be stored right by the door or may be attached to the door at all times. While anyone in the room could potentially deploy it, authorized personnel may panic under pressure and lose the fine motor skills and mental focus needed to activate it. Barricade deployment time can cost precious seconds in a crisis. “Some of the devices require fine motor skills,” Wilson explained. “In an emergency, the first thing to go for most people is the ability to think.”
  
  

• Liability Risks
  
  Not only do barricades block exits during an emergency, but unintended consequences of barricaded rooms could include potential hostage situations, more fatalities, injuries, and liability for schools in the aftermath.
  
  Even if a manufacturer asserts that its device “meets code,” those claims are often not recognized by the authorities having jurisdiction (AHJ), such as fire marshals or building officials. True compliance must be validated through proper testing and standards interpretation, not marketing claims.

  
  Because barricades often violate fire, life safety, and accessibility codes, schools may face:
  
  
  • Fines from the fire marshal or AHJ
    
  • Building closures until violations are corrected
    
  • Civil lawsuits from families of those who were killed or injured
    
  • Reputational damage that can impact enrollment and community trust

Barricades are a textbook example of a “save now, pay later” solution. 

Suggested Locking System Alternatives

Instead of barricades, safer alternatives are code-compliant locking systems. School administrators can ensure their code compliance by following these steps from Lock, Don’t Block, a campaign from the Door Security & Safety Foundation: 

Locks should:

• Be mounted 34-48 inches from the floor
  
• Quickly and easily lock from inside the classroom without opening the door
  
• Allow free egress with one motion
  
• Unlock from the outside by authorized personnel
  

Tier 1 of the PASS Guidelines states that classroom door locks must have the ability to be locked from the inside by all occupants and should be keyed or otherwise accessible on the corridor side for quick access by authorized personnel. Classroom doors must have one single motion to open the door for egress. This is critical as many classroom doors in use today do not meet these criteria. As schools modernize their facilities, they should also place emphasis on clarifying human roles and communicating to staff processes that are essential to effective use of the hardware that is chosen.

PASS recommends that classroom doors be capable of being locked from the inside by all occupants without use of an additional device such as a key. Under extreme stress, duress, or high anxiety, people tend to lose fine motor skills and dexterity needed to use them effectively.1

Additional devices affixed or temporarily affixed to the door, such as “barricade” or “secondary locking” devices, offer NO advantage over an existing code-compliant lock. These devices can increase liability and risk, and most violate fire and life safety codes as well as the federal ADA. For further information, see 5 Reasons Schools Should Avoid Classroom Barricade Devices.2

If you have to fumble, twist, or use a gadget to open a classroom door, it’s not safe. In an emergency, the door should open fast and easily– no tools, no keys, no tricks.

A full explanation and lock options for classroom doors can be found on pages 125 and  126 of the PASS Guidelines.

“In the event of an active threat, tensions and stress will naturally be high, so the goal is to mitigate the chances of a staff member panicking in the most important moment of their — and their students’ — lives,” said Jarvis-Wilson. According to  testimony presented to the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission, there are zero documented incidents of an active shooter breaching a locked classroom door by defeating the lock.

Key Takeaways and Action Steps for Administrators

Barricades may be inexpensive, but the hidden costs are steep: safety risks, liability, and potential loss of life — not to mention the ripple effect of extensive therapy and other mental health recovery resources. It is imperative to consider the entire threat to the ecosystem. We recommend using code-compliant locks in all school buildings.

“An all-hazards approach to school safety means we can’t fixate on a single threat like an intruder and overlook others, such as fire, medical emergencies, or internal violence. Every door and every locking device must serve all of those needs, security, safety, and accessibility — simultaneously. Anything less compromises the very protection we’re trying to provide.” — Laura Frye Weaver, PASS Technical Committee.

“At the end of the day, barricades might make schools feel prepared, but they introduce more danger. If we’re serious about protecting students and staff, we have to commit to code-compliant solutions.” — Amber Jarvis-Wilson

Here are some tangible ways to get your school administration on track if you are unsure of your school’s safety code compliance:

• Work with a PASS Partner organization to help assure that the  product solutions being considered, or that are already installed, are code compliant.
  
• Partner with law enforcement and facilities teams to review emergency access protocols.
  
• Follow the aforementioned steps to check code compliance. (Is it mounted 34-48 inches from the floor? Can it be locked from inside with a single, simple motion? Can it be opened with ease for egress? Can it be unlocked from outside by someone authorized with a key?)
  
• Ask facilities teams to audit your door hardware if you have any doubts.
  
• Invest in trauma-informed, PASS-aligned infrastructure planning.

We invite you to download these free PASS Safety and Security Guidelines for K-12 Schools, the most comprehensive and effective security practices for K-12 schools, assembled by industry experts from the education and public safety sectors.

Don’t block safety. Lock responsibly.

References:

https://passk12.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/5-Reasons-Schools-Should-Avoid-Classroom-Barricade-Devices-PASSK12.pdf

https://icisf.org/impact-of-the-tach-psych-effect-while-under-stress-duress-or-heightened-anxiety/

About PASS

The Partner Alliance for Safer Schools (PASS) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) bringing together expertise from the education, public safety, and industry communities to develop and support a coordinated approach to making effective and appropriate decisions with respect to safety and security investments. You can download the complete PASS Guidelines here, or check out our PASS Safety and Security Checklist for quick tips on how to get started.  These resources—as well as white papers on various topics including barricade devices, lockdown drills, and more—are available at no cost.