Teachers at Hamilton County Department of Education schools must now keep their classroom doors locked during lessons as an added security measure -- and it hasn't been an easy adjustment for some.
"Due to the Governor's Order 97 and the Department of Homeland Security, all Hamilton County Schools are to close and lock all classroom doors during normal classroom instruction," an email sent to teachers this week stated. "We know that statistically there has never been a locked door breached during a school violence event and it, therefore, provides a safer environment. This is being mandated by the HCDE Safety and Security Division."
While the procedure is not new for some schools in the district, it is now being implemented as standard protocol, Robert Sharpe, chief operating officer for Hamilton County Schools, said in an email.
"This is considered a best practice in school safety," Sharpe said. "We have not adopted this as a policy but are implementing it as a standard operating procedure. We have shifted to this best practice as an additional intervention point to protect our students and teachers in classrooms. Several of our schools were already implementing this measure, but others were not. We made the change in our guidance this semester to ensure consistency across the district."
Gov. Bill Lee's executive order went into effect in June. It doesn't specifically state that classroom doors must remain locked but says that school districts are encouraged to work with local law enforcement by "implementing critical security practices, such as ensuring a single point of entry and multiple points of exit, securing vestibules and other access points."
The measure is one of several taken by Hamilton County school officials to increase security following a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 children and two teachers.
Over the past five years, the district has invested about $5 million to re-engineer and "harden" school entrances. Hardening an entrance means there are several layers to entry before a visitor can even set foot inside an area where students might be.
In June, the Hamilton County Board of Education also approved a $950,000 investment to put school security officers in every school building. The Hamilton County Commission later OK'd an additional $1 million toward the effort.
But keeping a classroom door locked during instruction comes with added complications for teachers, said Jeanette Omarkhail, president of the Hamilton County Education Association.
"It came down so quickly," Omarkhail said in a phone interview. "There was no time to prep for it. And again, this is something coming from above the district telling us what to do without any advance notice."
Omarkhail said students with disabilities are especially affected by the change.
"Things like an autistic child who is used to being able to just open the door, now they can't, and that could set them off," she said. "So, because that's a change in routine (teachers) really have to help them with that."
Locked doors also cause distractions while teachers are giving lessons. If a student is late or if someone else is trying to access the room, the teacher has to stop their lecture and open the door, Omarkhail said.
"(Administrators are) working on getting master keys for the people who have to go in and out of classrooms, so that alleviates them having to go to the door," Omarkhail said.
Closed doors can also make for stuffy, or freezing, classrooms due to limited circulation, she said.
"Some of the rooms, depending on where you are in the building, get very hot. Some don't get hot at all," Omarkhail said. "Having a door open helps alleviate some of that."
Omarkhail said teachers recognize why the safety measure is important, but the inconvenience is frustrating.
"You're trying to teach, you're trying to deal with kids and the inconvenient things can become big," she said.
Sharpe said the district recognizes this is a difficult adjustment.
"We are encouraging principals to support teachers in making adjustments to ease the transition as we know it is a change for some," Sharpe said. "Our ultimate goal is to provide as many layers of safety as possible in our schools to protect students and teachers from any intruder who has the potential to cause harm."
Contact Carmen Nesbitt at cnesbitt@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6327. Follow her on Twitter @carmen_nesbitt.