Columbine locks are named after the horrendous shooting deaths at Columbine High School in 1999. The Columbine massacre, perpetuated by two students, resulted in the deaths of twelve students, a teacher, and the suicide of the two gunmen. Additionally, over 20 others were wounded, and few students survived the massacre without mental scars and trauma from that horrific attack.

The tragedy at Columbine raised many questions about the safety of students on any campus, and what possible steps could be taken to avoid another such disaster. One of the ideas proposed were columbine locks, which could be a way to keep an attacker out of a classroom and provide safety for students. Most schoolroom doors are locked from the outside by a key. If a shooting were to occur in a school, a teacher or another school staff member would have to exit a classroom, potentially risking his/her life to do so in order to securely lock the door.

If an attacker is on a school campus and doors aren’t locked, then the attacker has easy access to any room on the campus. By providing a locking mechanism inside the classroom, teachers or others don’t have to exit the classroom. They can also prevent an attacker from accessing the classroom, unless that person has a key. Columbine locks could also be placed on doors on gymnasiums, cafeterias or other large rooms during a lock down situation, to keep a large number of students secure at the same time.

The principle objection to columbine locks is that many school districts and individual schools cannot afford the expense of installing them. With limited budgets, schools may have to raise the money separately either through fundraising programs, bonds, or by creating special building funds. In 2007, for instance, the San Mateo Union High School District in Northern California decided to install columbine locks on doors. The cost was estimated as over $100,000 US Dollars (USD) to add these interior locking doors on about 450 classroom doors. That’s slightly over $200 USD per door.

High schools and middle schools frequently have many classrooms, and others around the country might find that the cost of columbine locks is just too high. There’s also some controversy about whether locks on such doors would be applied to offices of administrative staff. Should principals or deans, for instance, be attempting to save children if they can, instead of hiding in an office? Evidence suggests that in high school and college shootings, many teachers and administrators willingly risk their own safety to protect their students. Some people question whether they still would hazard this risk if columbine locks were applied to their office doors.

Others criticize columbine locks not so much for expense but because modern society has created a need for them. With an increase in shootings on high school and college campuses, many argue the solution is not locking doors, but making sure that students don’t have access to weapons. They suggest more restrictive gun control laws, and a ban on automatic weapons in general. Others point to violence in society as being caused by violence in our media. There are no clear and immediate solutions, and in the absence of such, increasing safety measures at school, like adding interior door locking mechanisms, might help protect more students and staff during an attack on a school.