School district barred from using barricade devices

• SWL Schools lost an appeal to place barricade devices in its classrooms.
• Parents raised money to purchase the devices for the district.
• The district and the parents wanted to use the devices to stop potential school intruders.
• The state’s Board of Building Appeals denied the district’s variance request.

PATASKALA – A recent state ruling means the Southwest Licking Local School District — as well as others around the state — will not be able to utilize portable door barricades to stop potential school intruders.

The district intended to place the small devices, which can be placed across classroom doors, locking them from the inside, in every classroom in the district.

A ruling from the Ohio Department of Commerce’s Division of Industrial Compliance Board of Building Appeals stopped the district, at least for the time being.

The board on Feb. 23 voted 4-1 to deny the district’s appeal to use the barricades. The appeal stemmed from a 2014 Licking County Building Department ruling that the devices violated state building codes.

An ABC television affiliate from Cleveland, News Channel 5, reported after the ruling that Mentor Public Schools and Madison Public Schools installed similar barricade devices in their classrooms. That station further reported the ruling could raise similar questions about whether their devices also violate state fire and building codes.

Southwest Licking Superintendent Robert Jennell attended the hearing, and afterward, he did not hide his displeasure with the board’s ruling.

“We were told we’re not allowed to use the devices,” Jennell said. “We’re not allowed to barricade our doors. That’s basically just short of telling us ‘Don’t follow the advice outlined in active shooter training.’ ”

Southwest Licking did not pay for the devices. A parent-led group, SWL Parents and Community Standing with Administrators and Teachers, raised more than $30,000 to purchase all 307 Barracuda Intruder Defense Systems. Volunteers dropped off the devices at the district’s five buildings in December.

The district was preparing to pass out the devices to teachers when the county building department handed down its ruling Dec. 17.

State Fire Marshal Larry Flowers and the chairman of the State Board of Building Standards, Gerald Holland, previously referenced the potential violations in a Feb. 17, 2014, letter. They drafted the letter as districts began updating their school safety plans.

Per the letter, which references specific sections of the Ohio Building Code and Ohio Fire Code, schools cannot barricade doors, even with removable door stops, because they would limit egress.

In light of the county and state rulings, Jennell said the barricades will go unused.

“Based on the rulings, we’re not going to put the devices in our classrooms,” Jennell said. “That troubles me because it’s one less safeguard.”

The parent group started raising money to purchase the devices after Southwest Licking offered its teachers and staff Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate training. The ALICE training teaches students and staff to flee buildings in response to active shooters. If they cannot safely flee, it teaches them to barricade themselves in their classrooms or fight back.

Other districts across the state offer the same training, and the Ohio attorney general’s School Safety Task Force recommended barricading classroom doors in a 2013 comprehensive report.

Parent Erin West, a member of the local parent group, attended the Feb. 23 hearing, and afterward she, too, expressed her displeasure.

“This is a statewide issue,” West said. “The (state) attorney general, the FBI, even Homeland Security, tell schools to barricade doors, and for some reason the (state) Department of Commerce has not caught up.”

Both Jennell and West said the ruling could have an effect on other schools.

“We know we’re not the only school entity using the system,” Jennell said. “I’ll be curious to see what other schools do now in reaction.”

He pledged Southwest Licking is not done fighting to use the portable barricade devices.

The district could petition state lawmakers to take action on the issue, he said.

“We believe and the community believed this was the proper way to barricade our doors,” Jennell said. “The rules have not caught up to the (school intruder response) strategies.”

West said her group also is not done fighting.

It likely will appeal to state lawmakers to step in and resolve what West termed a dispute between recommended school safety training and state building and fire codes. In the event an armed person enters a school, she asked: Would the state prefer students and teachers stack desks, chairs and other items against their classroom doors or lock a small, portable device against their doors?

“It’s frustrating, but I think from the start this has always been about keeping our kids safe, so we’re going to keep fighting for the safety of our kids and hope common sense ultimately prevails,” West said.