The recent school shooting in Newtown, CT, ripped through our hearts — and it was not an isolated event either. Recent history has shown that this tragedy can happen anytime and anywhere. School officials rely upon the door locks as a means of protection. As experts in the field, our duty is to inform them of not only quality of hardware but the correct way to limit its risk exposure. So, let’s examine common scenarios that daunt a typical school. It goes without saying that every school has a master key. This tool of convenience is also the greatest risk to the facility should it fall into the wrong hands. This is the great balancing act that we will assist the school administration with. Example 1 School administrators wish for the utmost security. Their ideal plan is to have the teach- ing staff totally responsible for their own areas and limit the number of shared areas. Custodial and senior staff requires access to every part of the school, and contractors and maintenance staff need access to strictly mechanical areas. This could be a simple two-level system with a master key that operates everywhere and individual changes for each teacher, and a mechanical key for all the electrical, plumbing and mechanical rooms. This may work in a small school setting but would be very impractical for a medium-sized or large school. Example 2 In a larger junior high, the administration wishes the staff could have access every- where while only limiting their access to certain areas. This also may be done with a two-level system. Assigning one change key to operate all classrooms and hall doors and every area where a teacher should gain access is a simple answer. The remaining rooms may be restricted to janitors and se- nior administration. People of this stature WWW.ALOA.ORG usually get assigned a master key. Keying rooms to the master key only greatly reduces unauthorized entry, as only those key holders can gain access. Changes may be created for these rooms, but who re- ally would use them? By creating changes that are not required, you diminish the capacity of your master key system and reduce the security of the lock by creating multiple shear lines that come from master pins used in its keying. The best practice is to keep it simple. “Unless you have extensive training in other areas of security, ensure that you do not state or qualify things that go outside of your area of expertise…” Example 3 An extremely large vocational school needs a definitive separation of the differ- ent areas of study. The automotive shop has many tools, chemicals and parts, which can classify it as a hazardous environment. You do not want the entire staff to gain access, as that is an invitation for things to go missing, disruption to occur, or an accident to happen. The same can be said of the culinary classes. Yes, food is valuable, but the great- er problem is the risk of contamination. In fact, most of the specialized subjects could present a reason for needing to limit access to its class or lab. This is justifiable but must be managed by keying alike, as many areas as possible. A three-level sys- tem may work better here: the grand mas- ter key that opens all doors, master keys for the different areas and change keys for the unique doors within if necessary. Example 4 A large campus has several buildings with the need for separate master keys for each building and master keys within, plus nu- merous changes. The administrators think it’s ideal to have the entire campus on one great grand master key. While this may possible, depending on hardware, it may be better to educate the client on the issues they may face down the road. They may not have room for expansion or future changes; losing the top key runs a huge risk and cost if it is compromised; and the larger systems may be an administrative challenge for key control. Situations like this really operate better as separate entities. If one building’s master key goes missing, it is a simple and more economic rekey project. Again, there is an opportunity to bring to the table other secu- rity solutions besides your keying services. The use of key storage lock boxes and key cabinets are warranted to avoid having any individual carry every single master key. It must be stressed that the more a key is car- ried or in transport, the greater risk it en- tails. Having access to the key when needed is not the same as carrying it around from place to place. When holding a conference with the pow- ers who make the decisions, you must stress that access levels must be determined by the need of the room, not by the person(s) that need access. Too many of our clients think only of what they need to access and how many keys they carry. It must be imparted to them to abandon that method of thinking and classify the room by its need. It is far better to have certain staff carry more than one key than to inadvertently give unauthorized access by keying the room for the sake of convenience. If a storage room was keyed to the classroom door where ev- ery teacher has access, you cannot consider this as a secure space. It is more secure for that particular staff to have a separate key for their storage room. DECEMBER 2014 KEYNOTES 31
