Pittsburgh Public Schools Spending $1 Mil On New Security
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – As the students return to class in the Pittsburgh Public Schools, they arrive amidst a school-wide effort to improve attendance numbers – and security.
In the nine months since the mass shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary, Pittsburgh Public Schools have launched a reinforcement of one existing policy.
"That the doors should be locked and that person should identify themselves before they come into the school," said Superintendent Linda Lane.
And they've launched a new effort to install new locks on interior doors.
"And it's about 4,400 doors," Lane said.
And with some doors and frames having to be upgraded or rebuilt, Maureen O'Connell, Scholastic Corp said it's an "over a million dollar project."
It's more complicated than you might think too.
"You got to lock people in and you have to keep them from being locked in," Lane said.
So while the installation process continues through the fall, so will the instruction period of when the locks will be used.
"It would be in case of an alert and there will be protocol that teachers understand," Lane said.
And don't look for Pittsburgh School Police to be armed anytime soon.
"I've never felt that guns and kids were a good combination, no matter who has the gun," Lane said.
Spending $1 million to put locks on all the district's doors is certainly not how the district wanted to spend its money, but there are certain lessons from Sandy Hook that simply could not be ignored.
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