The first mass shooting of the U.S. school year has already happened, at Apalachee High School near Winder, Georgia, on Sept. 4. Three additional school shootings followed within the week, in New York, Maryland and Nebraska.

As school shootings and threats keep happening, the first question in parents’ minds is: How are my children kept safe when they are in school?

Most Central Oregon schools have secure entryways with two locked doors keeping someone from entering. Some schools have one locked door. Security updates are underway in several districts this school year.

Cyndi Ganfield, principal of Terrebonne Community School, said parents have been pleased with the new vestibule with a second locking door, which was installed in August as part of the district’s 2020 bond work. This is her third year at Terrebonne Community School.

“To me it was such a little thing, but to them it’s a big thing,” she said. “They say it adds a sense of security for their students and for them.”

Terrebonne Community School’s secure entryway allows office managers to speak with a parent or visitor before they enter the building through a second door. Parents can ask questions or pick up a student while waiting in the vestibule. Staff have added a couch and an information table to make the space “homey,” Ganfield said.

“(Parents) love that other people don’t have access into the school,” she said.

Previously, the school had one locking front door at which someone could buzz for entry. Office staff could see the front through windows, and generally would expect someone to come right into the office.

“That did not always happen and last spring, I just happened to be walking by, and this stranger was at the front door buzzing,” she said. “It was a man who had no business being in the school. He was known to the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office, and he had been trying to get into local schools under the guise of doing a historical presentation.”

Ganfield spoke to him through a crack in the door, and was able to photograph him for the school’s resource officer, who is a police officer.

“The buzz-in system with one door would have allowed him, if I hadn’t caught him, to actually be in the building,” she said. “We need to be able to assure that we are doing our best at keeping the kids safe and having one more stop point to say ‘I’m sorry, you can’t come in.’”

Logan McGinnis, Redmond School District communications manager, said all schools have secure two-door entryways other than Ridgeview High School, which is secured with only one door. Installing a secure vestibule with a second door is included in the plans for the $97 million bond measure that will be on the November ballot, he said.

In the past year and a half, all Redmond schools have had new security cameras installed.

Bend High students attend class amid construction this year