Expensive New School Security System Traps Teacher in Bathroom

A $2 million boondoggle—er,
 “security system”—placed in New Jersey’s
Belleville High School proved its merit and unerring wisdom
when it locked a teacher in a bathroom. According to NutleyWatch.com:

Since school policy is to not allow the use of cell phones, no
one knew where she was, or what happened to her until they went
looking for her. Luckily, the teacher was carrying her purse, with
her phone inside. When her co-workers retrieved their phones to try
to call her, they found that she had been frantically trying to
call and text people to come help her.

By the way, this is the same RFID system that the Board of
Education pushed through as part of their controversial
surveillance system, installed and managed by Clarity Technologies
Group, at a cost of $2 million.

Even worse, when they actually discovered that she was locked in
the bathroom, they could not open the door by swiping
with their own RFID cards because the system had
malfunctioned. Apparently someone had to come and pry open the door
to finally get her out.

While this particular incident occurred in April, it was
apparently just one of several such mishaps. The system was
ostensibly put in place to prevent another Newtown, though how it
would actually accomplish that, I have no idea. A gunman bursting
into the school would show up on the monitors, yes, but would also
be pretty visible even without monitors.

A malfunctioning security system is a danger in and of itself,
as NutleyWatch pointed out:

What if this had been a child locked in a bathroom late on
a Friday afternoon, just before everyone left for the
weekend? Just imagine the fear and the trauma that child might
endure as a result, not to mention the ensuing lawsuit.

What if this system locked 30 kids inside their own classroom
during a fire?

What happens to all the doors in the school when a fire knocks
out the network, or melts some of the cabling? Does the
entire building become a deathtrap for everyone now locked
inside?

It seems like this is what happens when a school suddenly
decides it needs a security system and signs a contract with a
particular company—the only one that managed to get in a bid—two
weeks later. (You can read about that hasty business
decision here.)

Note that while the school district managed to find $2 million
for the safety of its dear children, the history books it provides
those same kids are so old, they don’t even cover 9/11. 

Odd for a school so focused on terror, isn’t it?