The recent rash of mass shootings has prompted a number of school districts to take matters into their own hands by installing $4,000 bulletproof doors to create ‘safe zone’ classrooms.
A Jewish girls school in Brooklyn, a public school district in northern New Jersey, and dozens of other schools are among the first to fortify their classrooms with military-grade steel doors that are capable of resisting hundreds of rounds from an assault rifle.
The doors were installed by Remo Security Doors, a company based in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
For the company’s CEO, Omer Barnes, it’s not just business. It’s also personal.
The images above show bullet-resistant doors installed in a school to protect children in the event of a shooting
The new doors which have been installed in dozens of school replace old wooden doors (like the one on the left) which would be rendered ineffective by rounds from an assault rifle
His two young children attend school in the Harrington Park School District.
So he was pleasantly surprised when the district superintendent, Adam Fried, who oversees all grades up to and including middle school, reached out to him.
‘These are military-grade products that weren’t designed to be installed in schools,’ Barnes told CNN.
‘They were meant for businesses and the government.’
Fried told Barnes about the lockdown drills that children were being put through in the schools.
‘In the 1950s and 60s, we had drills to prepare students and staff in the event of a nuclear incident,’ Fried told CNN.
‘But now we have to protect them in the event of a shooting.’
The Bnos Menachem Jewish girls day school in Brooklyn (above) was among the first to install bullet-resistant doors
The lockdown drills had children lock the classroom door, turn off the lights, pull down window blinds, and huddle together for about 20 minutes.
‘I couldn’t believe it,’ Barnes said. ‘I said “My kids, too?”
‘I was very upset that day.
‘Can you imagine how terrifying and traumatic it must be for kids to sit there in silence?’
So far this year, there have been at least 23 shootings at or near a school in the United States where at least one person was killed.
Fried said he wanted to bolster security for children at his schools in a way that did not detract from their daily routine.
‘We’ve been through Columbine and all the school shootings after it. We know we have to improve school security,’ said Fried.
‘The question was: How do we do it so our school doesn’t feel like a jail, with metal detectors? It’s not healthy for kids.’
Fried said that asking Barnes’ company to install 50 new doors was a ‘no-brainer.’
Despite weighing 150 pounds, the doors are easy to open, even for children, according to Barnes.
They also appear to be regular doors that come in a number of colors and finishes, blending easily into a school setting.
Aside from the bullet-resistant 18-gauge galvanized steel, the doors also have shatter-proof glass.
In the event of an emergency, the doors can be locked from the inside, triggering a mechanism in which 12 different metals make it virtually impossible to open from the outside.
‘It will stop the first few bullets from penetrating all the way through,’ Barnes said.
‘And the lock will jam if you shoot at it to try to open it.’
Barnes said that the doors can also resist fires for up to 90 minutes.
Though Barnes charges companies $3,900 for each door, he has slashed the price for school districts that are tight on cash, charging $2,500.
Another company, the South Carolina-based R2P Innovations, began selling bullet-resistant doors to schools late last year.
‘After Sandy Hook, our engineering team decided to challenge themselves to find a way in which we could help defend school children, teachers and administrators in the event of another active shooter situation,’ said founder and CEO Tony Deering.
‘It’s an unfortunate reality that school shootings are so prevalent in America.
‘So it’s crucial to be able to buy that critical 10 minutes of safety before law enforcement arrives in such a situation.’
At an average cost of $4,000 each, R2P Innovation’s doors weigh 260 pounds and can withstand 100 rounds from any assault rifle, according to Deering.