Vina High adds safety screens, door locks

VINA — Safety features have been added to classrooms and exterior doors of Vina High as part of a campus security upgrade funded through a $5,000 Northwest RC&D Council grant.

Principal Jake Ward said the grant covered safety screens and wraps for windows and doors as well as additional doorlocking devices to improve security during lockdown situations.

“We needed something to block the windows in classroom doors for lockdown drills,” Ward said. “We also used wraps on some exterior doors so people can’t see inside.”

Ward said the changes focus on both privacy and safety.

“If someone can’t see in,” he said, “that’s a safety improvement.”

The school installed floor-mounted door locks, which lets a teacher secure a door from the inside by anchoring it into the floor.

“If someone were to get a key, they still wouldn’t be able to get into the room,” Ward said.

He said the school has added improvements as funding has allowed.

“We’ve been working on school safety for about three years,” Ward said. “It’s expensive to do everything at once.”

The RC&D grant operates as a reimbursement program, Ward said. The school buys the equipment, submits documentation and then receives the funds, a process he described as “straightforward.”

Ward said other schools have used similar window wraps, but to his knowledge Vina is the first to install this type of floormounted door lock.

Looking ahead, Ward said the school wants to add more window coverings.

“We have a lot of exterior windows,” he said. “We’d like to find ways to cover them, whether that’s wraps, tint, curtains or blinds.”

Ward said the school has also received another RC&D grant for a future project to add protective railing near the softball field to help shield the bleachers from vehicles that could leave the roadway. The Franklin County Commission is assisting with that project, which the school expects to complete in the coming months.