DACULA, Ga -- Several Georgia school systems are looking at a classroom safety device developed by a Gwinnett County teacher.
After the tragedy of the shootings at Sandy Hooks Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, Cecelia Edwards tossed and turned all night.
The science teacher at Dacula Middle School could only think about how the shootings could have taken place anywhere.
She immediately, began creating prototypes for a device to keep classrooms safe.
"I woke up one morning and said to my husband, 'You've got to go to the hardware store,'" said Edwards.
She created PALS, Portable Affordable Lockdown Systems. She has a patent pending for the device which is a steel rope with a loop on one end
that attaches to a door knob or handle, and a carabineer clip that can be attached to an eye-bolt anchor to a wall.
"There's no way to get the loop off the door whether the door (handle) is up. Whether it's down," she said.
She developed the device because she said locking the door to the classroom and barricading it, is not enough.
"What if someone has a key and the door opens to the hallway, how effective is the barricade? So, that was the problem," said Edwards. "With a door that opens outward or a door that open inward, if you have an event where you need to, you simply grab your PALS and clamp it over the door handle and clamp it on the eye-hook and the door is secure."
The device is meant to slowdown any intruder.
"The goal is to buy time, until authorities can get here," said Edwards while demonstrating the device in her empty classroom.
Information on the device lists a price of $78 a piece, which translates into "less than $2.50 a child."
For more on the device, go to: http://lockdownsolutions.org/
