The Revere Local School District recently installed new security magnet strips and security latches for all the classroom doors to make all the school buildings in the district safer.

RHS Principal Phil King stated that the magnets and latches were put on doors earlier in the year.
“They were put on throughout the course of the school year. Certain kinds of doors couldn’t use the magnets, because they were old wooden doors. The magnets are placed on metal doors… and the latches were placed on the wooden doors,” King said.

Associate principal John Evans commented on the origins of the locks.

“It all does come from Homeland Security . . . . [we want] to keep students safe, based on what has happened at Sandy Hook and a lot of the other places .…[the locks and latches] decrease the amount of time it takes to lock a door. If we go to lockdown, [we can] just move the magnet strip and pull the door shut and the door is already locked,” Evans said.
King also explained that the locks are required to be on some of the doors in the district.
“They are required to be on [certain] doors. Some teachers need to have their doors locked completely or use that mechanism,” King said.

According to King, the district’s personnel and various community members collaborated on the decision to install the new locks.

“It was a district decision…. We have a collaborative team that we work with in Bath and Richfield, and wanted a lockdown system. In Sandy Hook… they believed [that] had teachers been able to lock their doors more quickly the gunman would not [have been] able to get in and the kids would have been saved. For that reason the district thought we would take the step forward and have that opportunity where teachers can lock their doors really quickly,” King said.

Finance teacher Jeff Dallas spoke of how the magnets work.

“The magnet is moved in front of the door so it can be opened at any time. Once the magnet is removed the door cannot be opened from the other side,” Dallas said.

Dallas also commented on the requirements of the locks.

“They are on all locking doors including [staff] offices as well as classrooms and they are not required to be on the doors at all times,” Dallas said.

The security magnets and latches are on the doors to keep the kids of the Revere School District safe in the case of an emergency.