SAN ANTONIO -- Ellison Elementary School is Northside ISD's newest school. It is also very different from the others because it has a secure lobby with bullet resistant windows.

It's the first of it's kind for NISD.

"The purpose of the bullet resistant lobby is to help us provide controlled access to our school so that we know who's coming in and we only allow entry to people that we know and know are safe to be in our building," said Principal Carin Adermann.

From 7:15 a.m. to 7:45 a.m. the doors are open to students and parents, but any other time the doors are locked and visitors will have to check in.

Visitor ID's will be swiped and entered into the school's tracking system. If someone is on the state sex offender registry list, that will show up.

Once the visitor's background is cleared, they will be given a pass. The secure doors unlock and they are allowed in.

As doors opened on the first day of school, students and their parents walked in excited about the new year and comforted by the extra security measure.

"The more secure the better. When it comes to the kids, we want it all," said parent, Dana Rimondi.

Other security measures include more than 30 cameras around the campus.

The secured lobby will be seen at roughly 30 other schools in the near future.

http://www.kens5.com/story/news/local/2014/08/25/new-nisd-school-opens-with-bullet-resistant-lobby/14565585/

Are the rest of the windows in the school bullet resistant?

I doubt it.

Potential security holes found with about 30 seconds of thought:
They still have to open the doors to let the student in off of the buses.  Heck, the article even provides the time window.
The person who snapped with no previous criminal history still breezes through the secure lobby.

I doesn't have to actually be secure as long as if "feels" secure to the average soccer mom.

Yep, it's all about "Feeling".

Right- in the end, there IS NO effective defense from the person who simply will go to any / all ends to do damage. We are all vulnerable, all of the time. On the other side of the coin, we have to do something given our recent history and 'lessons'. So- we do the only thing we can, try to put some reasonable amount of security into places we feel need more security. And frankly, I do not know that what is being done here is not a reasonable compromise. ??

I really do not think it is possible to plug all the security vulnerabilities for the public, or the individual member of the public (say, sitting at home watching TV or something). There is always risk, and sooner or alter, there will always be damage done to someone through acts of outrageous violence / extreme behavior. This is a motorcycle forum meaning most of us ride.... which means most of us drive, and I am quite sure most of us have autos. Given a sizable vehicle such as a light pick up or large SUV, some time and effort, any of us could do significant damage to some large gathering of people if that were the goal. Especially if there were no restrictions such as trying to live through the event. So logically, all we can do as a society is to try and plug the largest areas of vulnerability and place some security at places where lots of people regularly gather. As we value out children above adult lives, schools are a reasonable place to apply at least some of that security IMO.

But nothing can be made truly 'safe' or invulnerable IMO.

Soon all of this will simply be the new reality and no one will really remember anything any different. Most of us here I think  are older and can remember when boarding a plane meant walking up the stairs; carrying anything less than a running chain saw was not a problem. It is not that way anymore and I do not believe it ever will be again in the future but in 20, 30 years, no one will actually remember the experience of moving so freely in society.

Brian

Potential security holes found with about 30 seconds of thought:
They still have to open the doors to let the student in off of the buses.  Heck, the article even provides the time window.
The person who snapped with no previous criminal history still breezes through the secure lobby.

With great freedom comes great risk.  My grandbabies school in SoCal is surrounded by fences akin to prisons.  Wife jokingly called recess "Yard time".  Not so funny-why is it that these places with the most stringent laws continue to have the greatest problems?

With great freedom comes great risk.  My grandbabies school in SoCal is surrounded by fences akin to prisons.  Wife jokingly called recess "Yard time".  Not so funny-why is it that these places with the most stringent laws continue to have the greatest problems?

A rhetorical question?

I'll bite.  The laws only constrain the lawful.

A rhetorical question?

I'll bite.  The laws only constrain the lawful.

Close.  In order for a law to have any real impact there must be a willingness to impose penalty.  If there is a reward, it becomes an incentive and not a deterrent.  Laws are meant to hold the offender accountable, meaning, after the act has been committed, not before.  We live in a declining culture of "common" morality.