A.G. Gancarski
Some funding requests are a matter of life and death, as exemplified by Sen. Corey Simon and Rep. Jason Shoaf’s apparently successful push for funding for school safety funding for Suwannee County.
The conference committee encompassing the House PreK-12 Appropriations Committee and the Senate Education Committee agreed on Wednesday to fully fund the $172,500 request for school door barricades, with the Senate acceding to the House position on what is a key priority for Suwannee Superintendent Ted Roush.
“Increased school safety for all students and staff, in the event of an active killer event on any of the campuses. The barricade system will work, even if the school door lock is broken or not locked,” reads the funding request.
The $172,500 will cover “the sale and installation of the Legacy Barricade emergency door barricade system, for 575 doors in the Suwannee School District.”
“An assigned project manager will oversee the project and will be the point of contact with the client. All labor and installation will be performed by our trained, certified and insured installation team. Jobsite cleanup and quality control inspection will be performed upon completion of the project,” the request promises.
The project must be completed correctly and on time to be fully funded.
Failure to meet deadlines would result in forfeiture of 10% of the funds back to the district from the vendor. Material defects in assembly would require the errors to be corrected, and the school district would have a right to claw back an additional 10%.
The mechanism is simple from the description in the funding request.
“Staff and students will now be able to safely secure a door, even if the door is not locked or the lock is broken, simply by dropping the pin into the barricade system,” the writeup notes.
As a testament to the durability of the barricades, six firefighters took over 12 minutes to breach a door in testing events. Normal people would find intrusion more difficult, giving law enforcement time to respond and handle attackers.
5 comments
MH/Duuuval
February 28, 2024 at 10:42 pm
Worth a try though some nitwit may leave a door propped open.
Federal Prison Florida SuperMax
February 29, 2024 at 6:45 am
Don’t ban guns!
Build steel boxes to live in!
You ARE a Supermax.
Dont Say FLA
February 29, 2024 at 10:06 am
Hardening schools to keep kids safe is nothing but a foot in the door toward banning guns.
It won’t work, but it will be very expensive, and the intention is ultimately to create demand for banning guns because that has worked great in places that did it and also banning guns costs less than hardening absolutely every public space to the point where people with guns pose no danger to other people.
So I say, “go for it!”
My Windshield
February 29, 2024 at 10:11 am
Nobody’s buying My Pillow anymore, so I am now selling My Windshield. My Windshield is rock proof and bulletproof.
When the schools are hardened, the shooters will be in the woods along I-95, I-75, I=4, the turnpike, even Alligator Alley.
Best of luck to the shooters in Alligator Alley. Best of luck to the drivers everywhere else. Without My Windshield, you’re gonna need it.
Due to supply chain issue, quantities are strictly limited. No more than 10 My Windshield per family car per purchase, so don’t wait. Purchase now!
Let the kids do it
February 29, 2024 at 11:42 am
Somebody’s brother in law in Suwannee just made bank for Christmas. You know, both left and right are going about this all wrong. Why not just train kindergarteners to lock, and load? The teachers don’t have the juice and police can’t get there in time. Let the kids handle it, since they ultimately are the ones to deal with the fall out. I mean, that’s what this is saying, right? The magic doors will work because we will teach five year olds to drop the pin in it during a mass emergency, running toward the threat in a panic, in case we are not already observing common sense security standards? These are the brilliant minds of today. Also was not aware Suwannee had a shooter problem. Will remember that next time we head to the Folk Festival.
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