Principal, family invent device to protect kids from intruders

Editor's note: The following story has been edited to remove an incorrect reference to a manufacturer.

London Cooper is only 6, but she knows how to protect her classmates from an intruder.

The first-grader demonstrated the procedure Tuesday night at Alma Schrader Elementary School, pulling a bright green-and-orange magnet out of the crevice between a door and its frame. The latch clicked shut, locking London and her principal, Ruth Ann Orr, safely into the room.

Orr said she; her husband, Kevin, a sergeant with the Cape Girardeau Police Department; their daughter, graphic designer Meghan Anderson; and Meghan's husband, Army veteran Cory Anderson, are donating the large, flat magnets they developed -- called CORR Locks -- to all of Cape Girardeau's public schools.

Orr and Cory Anderson, who served as a chaplain in the wake of the December 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, were looking for ways to increase security at Alma Schrader, she said.

"As a principal, you are always concerned with the safety of your kids," Orr said. "If parents don't feel like their kids are safe at school, and the kids don't feel safe, then it's difficult for parents to trust you, and it's difficult for the kids to learn."

Like other local educators, Orr underwent active-shooter training, where teachers were advised to keep classroom doors locked at all times -- a procedure Orr said isn't always practical.

She and her family designed the CORR Lock to allow teachers to lock doors without hampering access to classrooms.

When the CORR Lock is in place, it covers the opening in the strike plate so the door can't latch. In an emergency, anyone in the room can pull it out, locking the door instantly.

Children are trained to pull CORR Locks in case of an intruder, just as they are trained to pull fire alarms in case of fire, Orr said.

Michelle Bryan, a senior in marketing at Southeast Missouri State University, said the product is the only one of its kind that can be operated without opening the door.

"It's an efficient way, and it kind of eliminates precious moments it would take" to lock doors manually, she said.

Bryan and several of her classmates have organized a campaign to promote the magnets, which cost $9.95 each, with quantity discounts available.

Group member Gerald Fields said the simplicity of the CORR Lock is critical to its effectiveness.

"It's simple, effective, easy to use, easy to teach, which is of course essential, important, when you are working with the youth," Fields said.

Southeast Missouri State University senior Anne Katrine Ravn, who is from Denmark, said it has been "really interesting" to market a product designed to address a threat that is unheard of in her homeland.

"We never had a school shooting," she said.

epriddy@semissourian.com

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Pertinent address:

1360 Randol Ave., Cape Girardeau, MO