What a great question. Well let’s look at what history has told us. Only dating back to 2012 (Sandy Hook) there have been over 200 school shootings (New York Times Fen 15 2018 article) nationwide. When an active shooter enters a school campus he randomly starts shooting at student and teachers. Everyone is looking to take cover somewhere.
Most will go in classrooms and block the door with bookcases, chairs, desk and anything they can find to prevent the intruder from entering and causing harm. The only problem is that the bullets have no problem penetrating through the standard wood or hollow metal door.
So do bullet resistant wood doors make sense for classrooms to give the students and teachers a safe haven from intruders? Of course they do. But the school board will say that it is not in the budget. At a cost of $3,000.00-$5,000 for door and installation it is a high number to swallow.
There are a few companies that have developed bullet resistant door protection that can attach (security screwed on an existing classroom door) that offers the same UL Level 1 – UL Level 3 protection at a fraction of the cost.
One is called the Bullet Resistant Door Guard. It simply screws onto the existing classroom door with Tamperpruf security screws and can be painted to look like a white board. Other companies have also tried to make lighter weight protection systems for classroom doors. Search for options as they are available. Let’s protect our kids at school from violence.