About Safe-Latch

Our Story

Imagine a classroom. What do you see? Children, desks, or perhaps, a chalkboard. What do you smell? Freshly sharpened pencils and chalk dust. What do you hear? Laughter, the whistle from gym class, a child’s voice.

Now image a lockdown.

Your heart skips, your breath stops, your palms sweat, and all eyes are fixed on you, the teacher.

This is where our story begins. It was shortly after the Sandy Hook tragedy and an elementary school in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, had begun to practice lockdown drills. Lockdowns in schools are used as a precautionary measure as a response to a potential threat. An alarm sounds, or a voice comes over the loudspeaker, and within seconds, you are responsible for securing your classroom door. In our case, the teacher had two classroom doors to secure and they had two different keys. Not only was our teacher having difficulty locking both doors in time, but what if she wasn’t in the classroom when the lockdown occurred? While teacher and husband discussed this issue washing the dinner dishes, an idea was formed. Safe-Latch. As luck would have it, our husband had a metal working shop in his garage and he began to work on a solution. He wanted to give his wife peace of mind during the lockdowns, but also, as a parent, he wanted to provide a safe environment for the students. Safe-Latch solved several problems. It provided a faster way to lock down the two doors in our teacher’s classroom while also allowing the doors to be locked if she wasn’t present. The need for two keys to be used was alleviated due to the fact that she could keep her doors locked at all times; once the latch was in place, the doors were secured. Finally, with Safe-Latch, our teacher had one less thing to worry about. Immediately, our husband had requests from the other teachers, and the principal suggested he attend a statewide conference to show his solution to others.

This is where you enter the story.

Do you have a locked door policy at your school? Do you need a solution that offers efficiency and peace of mind?

Safe-Latch. The heart valve of the classroom.