Page 65 - Security Today, May/June 2023

"The definition of a safe haven can range from complete wings that can be made inaccessible to areas within a room that are not observable from the outside—the latter being specific to K–12 applications." By Devin Bowman perimeter hardening to enhance the overall security a building offers. Additionally, entries and exits may be required to be fire-rated to establish safe paths of egress during a fire. This presents a couple difficulties, especially given the lack of security standards in current building codes. Because many forced-entry- and bullet-resistant- rated products are petroleum-based, they can burn more quickly and intensely than other materials, creating situations that greatly exceed fire rating testing parameters. This can diminish the duration and level of protection provided by fire-rated materials. Secondly, for retrofits, schools may opt for forced-entry-resistant films. While these products may, in theory, protect occupants, they do not cover frames or portions of glass within the frame—creating a weak point in an assembly that intruders can cause to fail. For these applications, multifunctional, fire-rated systems can ensure one form of protection is not compromised by another. An Interior Layer: The Inside-Out Approach The other approach prefers starting with a building’s interior and working outward. The inside-out approach creates safe havens within a building to protect occupants until authorities have detained the active shooter. The definition of a safe haven can range from complete wings that can be made inaccessible to areas within a room that are not observable from the outside—the latter being specific to K–12 applications. At their core, safe havens are places that provide temporary protection until first responders arrive. The inside-out approach can augment exterior hardening and other security measures to help schools reach higher tiers of building security. Further, it provides protection when evacuation is either not possible or unsafe. However, like all singular steps to building security, safe havens have their limitations that range from human error to the potential cost-prohibitive nature of incorporating forced-entry and bullet- resistant materials throughout a building’s interior. Moreover, safe havens may be located in areas that are not required to have fire-rated materials, which can be dangerous if occupants are required to evacuate due to a fire (or a false alarm, as was the case in the 1999 shooting at Westside Middle School). The concern in these areas is to Designing Safer Schools: Considerations for Increasing School Security ensure one threat to life safety does not override another, that occupants do not need to choose between sheltering-in-place in an area unprotected against fire or evacuating into a potentially unsafe situation. These limitations can be significantly reduced by specifying multifunctional, fire-rated glazing systems within the built environment. Since these assemblies are tested to be compatible, they ensure one threat does not supersede or compound another. Additionally, updating building codes to include standardized best practices can also reduce limitations by creating a baseline level of protection, addressing areas where fire safety and building security may intersect, and establishing best practices for designing assemblies meant for these areas. Creating Safer Schools: More Complex than an Either/Or Approach The complicated nature of protecting students requires a complex approach. The ineffectiveness of security measures taken in the past—as well as the shortcomings of adopting either the outside-in or the inside-out approach—seems to indicate that safer school designs may need to adopt multiple layers of protection to achieve their security goals. However, understanding exactly how to layer multiple protections may be difficult without a model building security code to reference. As school design professionals weigh the pros and cons of outside- in vs. inside-out tactics (as well as how they can be paired) to bolster school security, many in the building industry are also actively working together to advance building codes for the 2026 cycle to provide guidance on building security, sidelining complications, unintended compromises in protection, and keeping teachers and students safe. Devin Bowman is General Manager of Technical Glass Products (TGP) and AD Systems. With nearly 20 years of industry experience, Bowman is actively involved in advancing fire- and life-safety codes and sits on the Glazing Industry Code Committee (GICC). Contact him via email at Devin.Bowman@allegion.com or by phone at (800) 426-0279. MAY/JUNE 2023 campuslifesecurity.com 21