Indiana School District Installs Shatterproof Window Film
“If we had an assailant that wanted to come in and gain entry by using a gun, the bullet will come through but the person will not be able to break the glass,” Crothersville High School Principal Adam Robinson told Fox 59.
- By Jessica Davis
- January 25, 2019
Crothersville Schools has added 3M safety and security window film on all exterior school windows, as well as on interior glass doors and front office windows.
The film installation was paid for with about $59,000 in Indiana Secured School Safety Grant funds. The coating doesn’t make a window bulletproof but it will prevent a broken window from shattering apart.
“If we had an assailant that wanted to come in and gain entry by using a gun, the bullet will come through but the person will not be able to break the glass,” Crothersville High School Principal Adam Robinson told Fox 59.
The coating is designed to keep an armed threat from entering the building long enough for police to respond to the emergency situation.
“This keeps these windows completely structurally intact,” said Drew Markel, Crothersville Elementary Principal and district safety director. “So these windows, if you were to bust this window, it would spider, but the window would hold. So it essentially turns this into a solid door.”
The coating also serves as protection against severe weather, like the Henryville tornado that shattered campus windows and blew shards of glass into school hallways in 2012.
“Every school worries about the active shooter, but in southern Indiana, we have a large amount of tornadoes,” Robbins said.
“In the event of a tornado like down in Henryville, this would hold the glass into the doorway, so it would not allow the glass to fly into the building,” Markel said.
School officials said the window coating will also block enough sunlight to save an estimated 20 percent on cooling costs during warm weather.
About the Author
Jessica Davis is the Associate Content Editor for 1105 Media.