So many emotions flood parents of school-age students when they watch the news reports of horrendous intruder attacks, such as the recent murderous rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Rage. Horror. Grief. Fear. Helplessness.
While politicians wrestle with the policy issues surrounding such tragedies, a recognized security expert has published an e-book designed to immediately empower parents to better protect their children’s schools and to extinguish their sense of helplessness.
We Can Protect Our Children: The Guide to Securing Our Schools and Daycares spells out with clear, easy-to-understand descriptions and illustrations, how fast and simple upgrades to a building’s door locks and related security hardware can prevent or significantly hinder an intruder’s access to students and teachers.
Written by Dave Jabas, a veteran security specialist and CEO of WholeSaleLocks.com, the premise of We Can Protect Our Children is that well-informed parents need not wait another day to inspect their schools’ existing intruder-prevention locks and hardware and to take immediate proactive steps to greatly improve school security.
“When we have multiple sets of eyes watching out for each other and identifying weak points, it makes it much easier to find and solve any security issues,” Jabas writes.
In other words, the more parents who are well-informed and prepared to help, the better.
Indeed, Jabas encourages those who download We Can Protect Our Children – available now for only 99 cents from Amazon.com (free to Amazon Prime members) – to bring the e-book along with them for a walk-through inspection of their children’s schools and daycare facilities.
Working alongside school administrators, parents and teachers can use their cell phones or digital cameras to snap photos of the locks and security hardware currently in use and email the snapshots to Jabas and his team at Wholesale Locks. (Email photos to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or text them to 952-250-5276).
Jabas, who has provided hardware and/or security recommendations for various military branches, the Winter Olympics and numerous mobile command units zones throughout the world, will evaluate the photos he receives and provide parents and schools a list of the hardware required to properly secure each door against intruders.
We Can Protect Our Children points out that many schools, if not most, are using antiquated locks and hardware systems that were not designed to prevent intrusions from unbalanced individuals hell bent on expressing their rage against innocent children.
“Some people may argue that locks can be defeated,” Jabas says. “The key point, however, is the correct locks will significantly slow down an intruder or discourage the attacker altogether. In situations such as these, giving teachers, administrators, and emergency responders extra time generally equates to saving lives.”
Each of Jabas’s solutions in We Can Protect Our Children can be implemented while still complying with all local fire codes and Americans With Disabilities Act regulations. Moreover, the price of upgrading both internal and external doors is affordable – with many parents willing to donate the upgrade costs in exchange for the peace of mind their contributions buy.
Although each school and facility should be individually evaluated to determine the best locks and systems to prevent intruders, one solution Jabas highlights in We Can Protect Our Children is to equip each teacher with a pendant that can be worn around the neck (or carried in a pocket). The pendant can be pushed to electronically lock the classroom door immediately from anywhere in the room. Many current classroom doors require an adult to use a physical key to lock the door from the outside, unnecessarily exposing the teacher to danger and delaying activation of the lock.
“When a dangerous situation arises in a school building, the big challenge is to change the status of each vulnerable door from unlocked to locked as quickly as possible,” Jabas notes.
In addition to his book, Jabas encourages parents, teachers and administrations to visit the special school safety section of his website, www.WholesaleLocks.com, to learn more about the variety of locks, systems and brands that are available, including pricing. He can also be contacted for individual consultations by phone at 952-435-5003.
Jabas, who began his career as a locksmith in 1977, is an expert in high-security locks and electrified hardware. In addition to his work on behalf of multinational corporations and government agencies, he has provided affordable security solutions to public and private schools, churches, daycare facilities and major office buildings.
