Ugh. It all started with the door that had been propped open. Keeping doors closed and locked was detailed in the school security plan.
To be fair, of course, we all know that it started with Salvador Ramos.
Having said that, this chain of failures enabled his plan to work when it could have been thwarted.
I'm sorry to cast aspersions on a fellow teacher; but yes, the propped open door was the first and maybe gravest misstep. If SR entered just a minute or two after the door was propped open, I presume he was already on the perimeter, scouting ways to enter the school.
I know during my career I've propped open the door to the parking lot, as well. Sometimes we have bare minutes before the next class, and if I needed something from the car, it would take me 10x as long to go around to the front entrance. It never crossed my mind that someone would sneak in. If they had, though, I would have seen it from the parking lot and immediately called the office, but that would have been too late once someone was inside.
I'm eternally grateful that nothing tragic ever happened, and grateful to be retired. I still worry endlessly about my three school-aged grandchildren, though.
Then, of course, whatever ways the police were forced to restrain themselves from entering the classroom just compounded the tragic errors that took place here.
Our classrooms have a door with a handle and three little windows. That's why we lock the door and huddle silently in the farthest corner. Yet undeniably an intruder could break or shoot the windows and then reach in and unlock the door.
During these kind of drills, I could keep whichever class I had quiet, even though I've had as many as 38 13-and 14-year olds in the class at a time. It would be maybe 10 minutes and they felt like it's a little break from class.
The one day we did have a shooter and we were there for over an hour, where it's not easy to keep restless teenagers quiet with no room to move, they knew it was real and did stay quiet for most of the time. However, there were a lot of kids crying, particularly those who had younger siblings in other classrooms.
I do agree that if someone is determined to cause harm, it's not always possible to anticipate every action that may occur and keep everyone safe.
I don't know what the answer may be, because hardening the schools to prison-like conditions is going to cause its own mental stress for the children, and cause some potential teachers to reconsider entering the profession.
IMO