Florida Shooting Highlights the Mission of Bearacade Lockdown Response Systems

Hudson, OH, February 23, 2018 --(PR.com)-- What began in 2012 as a way to protect their children and their children’s peers has grown to being an added safety device for schools and businesses around the world.

Bill Cushwa and Dave Soulsby launched the production of their Bearacade® Lockdown Response invention following the deadly shooting at Chardon High School six years ago at the end of this month.

Concerned about the nature of makeshift and improvised lockdown drills for their children, the friends sought out the expertise of administrators, teachers, engineers, code officials, and safety forces to develop a better way to secure a classroom or office door during a hostile attack. In 2017, Bearacade units were deployed eight times to protect schools and workplaces.

"What we do boils down to simplicity and time,” says Cushwa. “In the heat of the moment, Bearacade is the public response before the police arrive. Our unit has to be simple to use and quick to secure a door when evacuation is difficult or dangerous. The underlying emphasis is providing time. Time for the occupants of a room and time for the good guys to arrive."

Placing Bearacade units into a school setting required more than just a brute force blockade. The business spends each day counseling schools on many layers of safety and troubling trends.

“School safety is complex. Since Parkland, there is obviously a heightened sensitivity to active shooters. However, schools are tasked with managing restraining orders, custody disputes, and domestic and workplace violence concerns as well. Incidents of bullying, harassment, and assault are also devastating our children every day,” Cushwa continued.

“If you are so solely focused on active shooter response, you run the risk of making a room or office less safe. Bearacade provides a quick safe room and withstands impact and ballistic forces while alerting and guiding administrators and safety forces when deployed. Under normal conditions, it just hangs on the wall like a fire extinguisher that is never used.”

Bearacade units are now a safety option in more than 125,000 classrooms, hundreds of retail locations, and dozens of churches and other institutions in the US and abroad. Units are also used on select bases of the US Air Force. The products are injection molded, assembled, and shipped from northeast Ohio, just miles from the tragedy at Chardon High School.