In today's environment, parents can't help but feel at least a tiny bit of worry when their child is at school. Two of the threats schoolchildren are exposed to are active shooters and tornadoes. In the face of these risks, Concord School District in Arkansas was looking for ways to better protect their students and staff, as currently widely adopted solutions have several shortcomings.
For example, in tornado-prone areas, such as the Midwest, most schools would either build a new building or repurpose a gym to act as a tornado shelter by reinforcing it structurally. Not only were these structures expensive to build, they were also hard to access in some cases. Tornadoes move very fast, and people sometimes only have a few minutes to get to safety before the tornado hits. Having the shelter in a separate building would mean having to move from one building to another, exposing students and staff to danger caused by strong winds. Furthermore, these tornado shelters offer little protection against active shooters and actually put more people at risk.
Active shooter protocols, such as lockdowns, also leave something to be desired, as students and staff usually shelter in place by huddling into a corner or hiding under desks in their classrooms. In some of the most tragic school shootings, such as, Sandy Hook, Connecticut, Parkland, Florida, and Uvalde, Texas, students were assaulted and killed right in their classrooms. On the other hand, leaving the classroom also leaves students vulnerable. Therefore, the best solution is to create a secure, safe place within the classroom. This action was recommended by the Final Report of the Federal commission on School Safety – p. 143 (Dec 2018).
Because of these conditions, Concord School District selected National Safety Shelters' in-classroom mini saferooms as a way to protect students and staff from active shooters and tornadoes. The mini saferooms are modular, assembled on-site, and are built to withstand assault rifle fire and EF-5 tornado winds. They can easily be expanded and moved to other locations if needed. The saferooms can easily be installed in a classroom during the weekend, ensuring no disruption of classes, and it took just four weekends to install a total of 46 saferooms across the campus. Installing the saferooms does not normally require a building permit since no structural modifications to the building are required. This allows a total project time of 4-6 months from the time of order to completion of installation.
The project was a success and was well-received by the community, especially the students, parents, and teachers. It was funded by a community-approved property tax increase, or millage, with 86% of voters agreeing to the proposal.
"Normally, when communities are asked to pass a millage, no one wants higher taxes and no one wants to give up more of their hard-earned money," says Amy Miller, a teacher at Concord School District, whose child also studies at the same school. "When our community was told the primary expense would be for mini saferooms for our kids, it wasn't even a discussion. It was 'That's awesome! How soon can the saferooms get here? How soon can they be installed?'"
Prior to the installation, there were some doubts about the mini saferooms, as they may take up too much space, however, the mini saferooms only take up to 5% of a classroom's total area. Rather than making the students feel intimidated, the mini saferooms have given them a sense of calm, according to testimony.
"I feel safer now that they're in the room because I can just take four steps and I'm in the saferoom," says Remi, a third-grade student at Concord School District.
Dennis Corrado, President of National Safety Shelters, also highlighted the successful mini saferoom project in the Quitman School District in Arkansas, which was completed in 2019. The district's superintendent told him that enrollment had grown by around 40% since the saferooms were installed. This shows that the increased safety was convincing parents from other areas to send their children to Quitman. Corrado expects Concord to reap the same benefits, which include higher revenue for the district due to increased enrollment, the ability to attract higher quality teachers, and higher student test scores due to better peace of mind.
National Safety Shelters is currently coordinating with various school districts and government bodies across the US, as well as presenting at conferences such as The Security Industry Association's Annual Government Summit in Washington DC, to increase awareness of its mini saferooms and encourage more schools to adopt it as part of their student and staff safety protocols.
"These saferooms constitute a one-time cost, with virtually no need to shell out for operating, maintenance, or upgrade costs commonly associated with other safety measures, such as metal detectors, cameras, and panic button software," says Corrado. While these solutions are also beneficial and important, it is critical to have something that's right there with them in the classrooms and immediately accessible, since, during an active shooter or tornado event, seconds matter."
