Schools

VIDEO: Capo Schools Test Safety Device

A task force is looking at ways to augment security.

A task force looking at safety issues at Capistrano Unified School District has come up with new – and old – ideas for protecting the children.

Student safety was among the topics last week at a community forum hosted by Superintendent Joseph Farley. He said the district pulled together a safety task force after December’s Sandy Hook School shooting in Connecticut.

Trustee Amy Hanacek is on the committee and told the audience that the district is piloting a new device that can create a barrier between students in a classroom and someone with evil intent on the outside.

Find out what's happening in San Juan Capistranowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“Instead of being reactive, we’re going to be proactive,” she said.

The device is called the Lock Blok and it has been installed in classrooms at Las Palmas Elementary in San Clemente and in one room at San Juan Hills High.

Find out what's happening in San Juan Capistranowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The Lock Blok goes on the inside of door. It keeps a locked door from latching, so that people may come and go just as if it were not locked.  In the event of an emergency, a teacher could disengage the latching system and the door would lock without having to lock it from the outside, keeping teachers out of harm’s way, according to an article in San Juan Hills’ student newspaper.

Invented by a former teacher, the Lock Blok’s advertising does not call it a safety device but something to reduce the noise a door makes as it opens and closes dozens of times a day. 

“Door Blok and Lock Blok are designed to reduce the distractions caused by the sound of the classroom door,” San Diego-based inventor Rick Morris told Patch. “It's very gratifying to know that these products are helping, in some small way, to make classrooms across the country more conducive to both teaching and learning.”

The task force is also looking to reinforce rules that have fallen by the wayside, including ensuring staffers wear identification badges and visitors check in with the front office.


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