A near-miss incident highlights how outdated classroom doors can leave teachers and students vulnerable during emergencies.
BERKELEY COUNTY, SC, UNITED STATES, January 14, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Following a school lockdown earlier this month, school safety advocate and innovator Tony Deering, founder of R2P Innovations, is urging leaders and communities to focus on one of the most critical but overlooked elements of school safety: classroom doors.
During the lockdown, parents anxiously waited for updates, teachers acted quickly to secure classrooms, and students remained quietly sheltered as law enforcement worked to assess and resolve the situation. “When a school goes into lockdown, the last line of defense is a classroom door,” Deering said. “The extent to which we place a bulletproof barrier between our children and the threat is the extent to which we can buy time for law enforcement to arrive.”
“Classroom doors were never designed to stop a determined intruder. Most are hollow core, cannot be locked from the inside, and can be breached in seconds. This is a reality that educators and parents must live with every day,” Deering stated.
“We invest heavily in surveillance, detection, and notification technologies, which are all important pieces of a layered security plan, but when push comes to shove, none of those solutions will stand between a committed threat and the people we want to protect. A bulletproof classroom door can serve as the most critical piece of protective infrastructure,” he said. “Preparation must happen before a crisis, not after.” Deering stressed that run, hide, fight guidance only works if you have a safe place to run to or hide behind.
The Berkeley County lockdown, Deering added, should not be dismissed as an isolated incident, but recognized as an opportunity to take meaningful action to strengthen school safety across South Carolina.
“Every lockdown is a reminder that threats are unpredictable and often close to home,” he said. “We owe it to our children to make sure the doors protecting them are ready to do their job.”
Jonathan James Cramer
R2P Innovations
+1 843-371-4027
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