In the wake of the latest mass shootings, a Crown Heights yeshiva for girls is the first school in NYC to install metal security doors aimed at protecting kids from active shooters, The Post has learned.
The first door of 90 planned for the Bnos Menachem school was installed last week by Remo Security Doors, a company that manufactures them in Israel.
The 150-pound classroom doors, made of galvanized steel, are fortified inside by metal bars, the company says. The doors can be locked from the inside with a thumb turn, and no electricity is required. Each has a bullet-resistant window.
Company president Omer Barnes said a bullet may penetrate the door, but a shooter could not get in.
“No weapon will open the door,” he said.
Turning classrooms into “safe rooms” will not only keep kids safe from shooters, but ease the mental trauma in emergencies and lockdowns, which have become a common precaution.
The doors cost $2,500 apiece, but school officials and parents say the peace-of-mind is worth the extra expense.
“I think it’s great,” said a mom whose daughter goes to Bnos Menachem. “It’s a very secure feeling to know that there’s a security measure and that they’re really thinking about the safety of the children.”
As a religious institution, the school was able to secure about $150,000 in a state Homeland Security grant, Barnes said.
The company has door-installation jobs lined up in more than 50 Jewish schools and synagogues in Brooklyn.
The company has already put in more than 45 security doors in Harrington Park, N.J., public schools, superintendent Adam Fried confirmed.
Fried said school leaders liked that the thumb-lock on the doors are so easy to lock “a 5-year-old could do it.”
The public school systems in Tenafly, N.J., and Newburgh, N.Y, plan to install hundreds of Remo doors in multiple buildings, Barnes said.
“I was born and raised in Israel. When I hear the siren and go to the safe room, I know that I’m safe, physically and mentally,” he said.