ECTOR COUNTY, Texas — The Ector County Independent School District is in the second phase of a two-phase project to fortify school doors in the case of an emergency lock down.
Phase one was started and completed over the summer with the purchase of hundreds of Bearacade door stops and installing them in every one of the district's secondary school classrooms, and in the classrooms of 10 of the district's 28 elementary schools.
District officials say phase two of the project is to add Bearacades to every elementary classroom and then to go back and add to office and faculty doors of every one of the district's schools.
Phase two is currently under way with a purchase order already made.
Alicia Doninguez has been teaching for 23 years. She says the Bearacade door stops are lightweight, easy to use and take seconds to put into place.
"I feel like there's not going to be anyway for anybody to get in," said Doninguez.
The Bearacade door stops use a hole in the ground and a stainless steel pin to add a level of fortification to doors.
Lieutenant Jeff Daniels of the ECISD police department says the tool can buy valuable time in the case of an emergency.
"What we're looking for is something to slow the perpetrator down to give law enforcement and first responders a chance to stop the threat," said Daniels.
Daniels says every classroom with a Bearacade has a teacher that has been trained on how to use the tool.
"We've adopted this into our standard response protocols for lock downs," said Daniels.
