BHS students 'having sex,' 'doing drugs' in empty classrooms. Why teachers don't have keys

BROCKTON — Most teachers at Brockton High School don't have keys to their own classrooms, meaning they can't lock their doors during the school day.

At a special Brockton School Committee on Wednesday, Jan. 31, administrators, teachers, students and parents discussed security and safety in Brockton High and shocking levels of violence and mayhem in the hallways.

"Please give teachers back their keys," said BHS teachers Eleri Merrikin at the meeting.

"They're having sex and doing drugs and cutting class in empty classrooms and we can't lock our own classrooms. They're stealing laptops, and they are vandalizing."

One key unlocks all the classrooms

Each classroom doesn't have its own key. The same key works on all of them. One assigned floor teacher carries the master key and unlocks each classroom on their floor every morning and the classrooms stay unlocked throughout the day.

Committee member Joyce Asack and Committee Chair and Brockton Mayor Robert Sullivan said they weren't informed of that process until last week's meeting.

“I think that was news to all of us,” Sullivan said.

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Why don't teachers have keys?

Brockton Police Captain John Hallisey, who works at BHS, said at the Jan. 31 meeting that teachers don't keep their own keys because it could present issues in an active shooter situation.

"I don't know if we want to give all these keys out if there's an active shooter, [if] someone gets over a teacher and gets a key, they can open every door,” Hallisey said.

“That was one of the safety issues when they took their training, they don’t want all those keys out there," he said.

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BPS Acting Superintendent James Cobbs added, “If you lose a key then it could be compromised."

Cobbs said there are different keys systems in the building - one type of key for administrative offices, a different grand master key that Cobbs carries and all classroom have another type of key.

What's the solution?

The mayor said he and Brockton Police Chief Brenda Perez will look into the issue to find a more efficient, effective solution.

"I don't know why you'd have a master key. You should have, I think, individual keys for individual classrooms," Sullivan said. "We need to look into it."

This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Brockton High School teachers don't have keys to lock their classrooms