Many schools have placed large numbers on each exterior door to help emergency responders navigate their facilities in the event of a school security incident. Our clients have reported numerous other day-to-day benefits from this practice. For example, numerous clients have told our school security experts that this makes it easier to direct visitors for special events and helps maintenance personnel understand which door needs repair when work orders come in. This school security practice is relatively inexpensive and can provide years of benefit even if there is never a major school security incident.
Some of our clients add directional letters to make communications even more effective. For example, 4W would indicate door number 4 facing west. A few of our clients even place the numbers and letters on the inside of exterior doors at the bottom of the doors so they can be seen when crawling during a fire. Our school security experts generally do not recommend numbering individual classrooms on the exterior of the school as this could help an aggressor locate a staff member or student they wish to attack or in the case of students abducted.
Our school security experts try to focus on the simple and inexpensive approaches to school security as well as appropriate school security investments that are more costly.