Written by: Amy Rock
Southern hospitality may be alive and well in much of North Carolina, but safety precedes manners at Buncombe County Public Schools.
For Joseph Hough, district assistant superintendent of auxiliary services and school safety and a 2024 Campus Safety Director of the Year finalist, access control has always been a priority. Over the years, he has implemented several inexpensive — and even some free — access control programs or systems that revolve around student and staff training. Five years ago, Hough introduced “ignore the door” training (14:39).
“We have signs throughout the school with the slogan, ‘Ignore the door.’ We’re here in the south and it’s our southern hospitality that if somebody comes to the door and they need to be let in, we do it,” Hough told Campus Safety. “But this day in age, we can’t do that, so these signs face the students and staff on the inside and we teach them to ‘ignore the door.’ Somebody comes to something other than the front, they need to be screened in and buzzed in appropriately.”
One anecdote Hough likes to share happened the second year into the program (16:08). During an assessment of an elementary school, Hough tried to open a door near the library but couldn’t get in. He spotted a third-grader and decided to knock to see if she’d let him in. Instead, she turned and mouthed, “Go around.”
“And let me tell you, it warmed my heart. I knew two things. Number one, that principal did exactly what I asked them to do, and number two, the students received that information and they took it to heart and why it was so important,” said Hough. “It’s one of my favorite stories. When we start talking about safety and security, we’re always really focused on the capital stuff. Sometimes it’s just the teaching stuff.”
The program has proven extremely effective. Hough said before its implementation, he was able to gain access to 55% of the district’s 45 schools through an unsecured door during site assessments. Last year, that dropped to 10%, although he says he’s still striving for that “big old zero.”
Door Security Under $500
While not completely free, another proven and cost-effective access control solution implemented under Hough’s leadership is the yellow safety dot system (12:46). He placed a yellow dot sticker on each door strike and when the dot is fully visible, the door is latched properly.
“If you’re walking a good 10, 15, 20 feet away, you can see a yellow circle in full versus one that you don’t see in full,” he said. “What we teach the staff and the kids — and I tell you, elementaries eat this up, they want to be on safety patrol — we tell them if they ever see it [not in full], pull it to and then go find an administrator, custodian, or somebody and say, ‘We have an unsecured door.’”
With around 2,000 exterior doors in the district, Hough estimates he paid under $500 for the stickers.
“That’s always a success story whenever you can find things that prove security that did not break the bank and that was just one,” he said.
Redundancy Key to Successful Access Control
Since implementing these cost-effective access control solutions, the district has also adopted door access technology that notifies district leaders when a door has been opened for a set amount of time.
However, yellow safety dots and “ignore the door” teachings remain at Buncombe County Schools to ensure redundancy as technology cannot and should not replace the human element of school security.
During this interview, Hough also shared:
- Insights into the district’s massive front office reconfiguration project (1:14)
- How his military background helps him do his job (20:27)
The full interview transcript is below.
Watch the full interview here or listen on the go on Apple or Spotify.
