CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story stated that it took a month longer than UNC-Charlotte had hoped, to equip classrooms with lockdown kits. We’ve since learned the delay actually applies to the release of information that the project had been completed. The university tells us the installation was finished in December, which is on track with UNCC’s plans.
As a gunman opened fire on campus last April, terrified UNC Charlotte students, faculty and staff could not lock roughly 700 classroom doors. Thanks to a major safety improvement, barricading should never be a problem again.
It took a month longer than UNC Charlotte hoped, but the university announced Monday most main campus classrooms and teaching laboratories now have lockdown kits.
The kits include two simple tools: a door wedge and a cut fire hose. Depending on the kind of door, the devices will keep intruders out of rooms that don't lock from the inside.
Our Defenders investigation exposed vulnerability in recent months.
During the April 30 deadly campus shooting, 911 calls identified frantic callers in rooms that wouldn't lock. The university later confirmed hundreds of campus doors were originally designed to only lock from the outside when classes were not in session.
"All the doors lock," UNCC Associate Vice Chancellor for Safety and Security John Bogdan said. "Not all of them can be locked from the inside."
At the time, administrators pledged they were working on a solution they hoped would be in place by the end of last semester.
"You're always looking for a way to improve," Bogdan said. "Our long-term plan is to try and get to some sort of locking device or barricade device for every door."
Hopefully, no one will ever need the lockdown kits, but at least now they are available. Now that the first phase of the improvements is complete, UNC Charlotte plans on adding lockdown kits to other laboratory, conference and office spaces on campus.
While most rooms now have lockdown kits, UNC Charlotte said there are still a few that do not lock internally and in those rooms, neither the door wedge nor fire hose will work.
The university is reviewing solutions for those doors, like replacing the locks, which are expected to be in place over the next few weeks.
UNC Charlotte follows campuses like Wingate University and Central Piedmont Community College. Both schools made safety improvements related to similar kinds of doors in recent years.