DAYTON, Idaho — Horrific school shootings in recent years have stirred up a big question that many companies, including some in Utah, have been trying to answer: What's the best way to keep kids safe in their classrooms?

Although the actual risk of a school shooting is incredibly small statistically, highly publicized tragedies have definitely frightened many parents and kids.

"Having them prepared reduces fear," said Cole Smith, co-founder and CEO of Logan-based Tresit Group. "Having them in the unknown creates fears."

Tresit Group has started selling a software security system for schools, and it's currently getting its first full school year test in Dayton, Idaho.

Armored doors for classrooms

Another Utah company, LifeSafe International Products, is offering a hardware solution: armored doors for classrooms.

"If we can keep the perpetrator out of the classroom, we're going to keep kids safe. We're going to keep them alive," said LifeSafe president Kamm Kartchner.

"Fire in the hole!" Kartchner shouted as he prepared to demonstrate one of the company's products on an indoor firing range in Salt Lake City. For comparison purposes, a standard classroom door was positioned vertically, side-by-side with one of LifeSafe's armored doors.

Kartchner fired two different handguns. The bullets easily penetrated the unarmored door and punched a hole in a small glass window above the doorknob.

Then, Kartchner topped it off by firing a couple of shotgun blasts through the door. It demonstrated that if a bad guy wants to shoot his way through a standard classroom door, it wouldn't be too hard.

"With a few shots around the doorknob, you could easily kick in the door and breach the interior," he said.

The LifeSafe armored door looked very similar. The company designs them to look like any other door, but it stood up to the weapons.

"OK, range is hot!" Kartchner yelled as he began firing a second round of shots.

In the aftermath, it was clear that the armored door suffered some damage. The front of the door was pockmarked by bullet holes and shotgun blasts. The back of the door had patches that were slightly bulged and buckled. But none of the lead passed all the way through; it remained embedded in the door and its glass window.

"You'd have to shoot it hundreds and hundreds of times before you could get anything through it," Kartchner said.

He explained that the armor itself has "self-healing" qualities that quickly close up the holes as they are punched into the door.

Although the armored door wouldn't bring an active-shooter situation to an end, LifeSafe's sales pitch is that it could delay the shooter long enough to make a difference. It could buy time to give law enforcement a chance to get to the scene.

After 18 months on the market, though, the only buyer of LifeSafe's armored doors has been the courts building in Sandy. Not a single school has bought in.

It's possible that school officials are skeptical about whether the cost matches the level of risk. LifeSafe charges about $1,500 per door, and schools have a lot of doors.

Kartchner is hopeful that, eventually, many schools will be willing to pay for the added protection.

"(There's) lots of interest in the schools," he said, "but the budget cycle for schools is quite long."

It's the same story with a classroom armor system developed in 2013 by International Armoring Corp. in Centerville. So far, there has not been a single buyer for the system, which involves armored doors and bulletproof shelter partitions. The full system would cost several thousand dollars per classroom for the hardware.

Software: DIR-S

Software, on the other hand, has the marketing advantage of being relatively cheap. Tresit Group's software, called DIR-S, averages about $1,500 for an entire school.

"This product buys time and time saves lives," Logan Police Capt. Tyson Budge said.

Budge leads the tactical unit for the police department and would be one of the first responders if a school shooting ever erupted.

"I think this product answers a lot of emergency responder questions," he said.

Just over the state line in Dayton, the West Side School District has already purchased the DIR-S software.

"It just functions in the background," West Side Superintendent Spencer Barzee said. "So instead of putting bars on the windows or gates around our school, we choose this option that helps to be able to keep us safe."

The software connects every computer in the school and every teacher's smartphone to first responders for all kinds of emergencies. It would come into play in situations as diverse as a bomb threat, natural disaster, medical emergency, missing student or, in the worst-case scenario, an active shooter in a school building.

"Hang on, guys," said West Side teacher Brent Adams as he headed for a classroom door.

Adams and some student volunteers demonstrated the system by acting out a scenario in which a hypothetical gunman was in the hallway. He opened the door, took a quick look and then closed the door and locked it.

Using the DIR-S app on his cellphone, Adams triggered an active-shooter alert.

"All right, guys. This a lockdown," he said as he switched off the classroom lights.

"Let's go over here and line up," Adams said as students moved into predesignated positions, huddling along one wall of the classroom.

In such a situation, office personnel like Barzee would be instantly alerted and so would key players outside the school.

"Law enforcement's notified," Barzee said. "The seminary building's notified. All three buildings in the district are notified."

A map of the school building is displayed on each computer and cellphone, and each teacher can punch in each classroom's status. If the teacher clicks "safe," the classroom's color on the map turns green. A click on "unsafe" turns it red on the map.

As the emergency unfolds, each teacher is prompted to update the classroom's status every minute or two.

Everyone using the DIR-S software can also type in messages in real-time that can be read by everyone else.

"This is only a drill," Barzee typed. "The intruder is in Room 3, the band room."

In a real emergency, that detailed information could help tip the balance a bit more in favor of law enforcement.

"(It would provide) better information, faster, so that we can have a better response," said Capt. Karen Hatch of the Franklin County (Idaho) Sheriff's Office.

Needless anxiety?

But are all these security worries blown out of proportion? Does it just cause needless anxiety?

Statistics on school shootings are notoriously squishy, but it's clear the risk is extremely small. A 2012 study published in PsychLawJournal estimated the annual risk of a shooting for each school at 1 in 53,925. The odds of a student being shot and killed at school each year is 1 in 15 million.

Child psychologist Douglas Goldsmith says some kids are already extremely anxious at school.

"We don't shield them enough from scary news stories," he said.

As executive director of The Children's Center in Salt Lake City, Goldsmith said he sees many students who suffer from anxiety. He said schools would face sharp criticism from parents if they did not have good security measures.

Hardware and software security systems might help reduce anxiety for students, Goldsmith said, but only if it's presented to them in the right way. The key, he said, is to give the students a message that empowers them rather than makes them fearful.

"I think (it's good)," Goldsmith said, "as long as we're saying to children, 'You know what? We're better than the bad guys. The bad guys, they're going to try to get us. But, boy, they won't be able to get us.'"

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Students at West Side High seemed happy to have the DIR-S software.

"It's better safe than sorry, I guess," senior Josh Winward said. "It's a good thing that we'd be prepared."

Smith said his Tresit Group is negotiating with several larger school districts and predicted it will be in use in Utah later this year.

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