Winnenden is a town of just under 30,000 inhabitants northeast of Stuttgart. On 11 March 2009, the town hit the headlines worldwide when the Albertville Secondary School became the scene of a shooting spree that killed 13 people in Winnenden and three others, including the 17-year-old perpetrator, during the subsequent escape of the spree killer. In the aftermath of these events, the city administration decided to equip all its schools with electronic security technology to better protect pupils and teachers in all kinds of dangerous situations.
access points
schools across the town
With the use of the electronic solution, lost keys are no longer of importance to us. This is a real added value in everyday life, as lost cards are simply blocked. The system thus supports us threefold: the security risk of lost keys no longer exists for us and we no longer have to re-order cylinders and keys at great expense. This also considerably reduces the time required for key or access management.
Security in schools has always been a balancing act. On the one hand, there is a desire for a certain level of security and appropriate use of technology. At the same time, schools should not lose their open character. In addition, the security technology must not restrict daily processes. These aspects also played a fundamental role in the reorganisation of the security concept for the schools in Winnenden, especially after the shooting in March 2009 had put the Albertville-Realschule Winnenden in the public eye.
It was defined that rooms or areas should also be able to be closed without the presence of authorized people (typically teachers) - without medium and quickly. However, according to the State Building Code (LBO), classroom doors belong to the 2nd escape route. This means that they must always be accessible from the inside. Therefore, a split nut in the lock is an absolute requirement for a solution that complies with the regulations. Furthermore, it must be ensured that teachers always have access to the classrooms, e.g. even when pupils are pranking.
For access control, the subject teacher principle is applied across all secondary schools in Winnenden: According to this principle, only certain persons have access to certain rooms. The decision to assign teachers to rooms is made by the teachers' conference of each individual school. Accordingly, each school regulates the access rights differently, as the procedures also differ. In addition, teachers should only receive one medium for access control and amok alarm triggering, so as not to accidentally use the wrong medium in dangerous situations and thus lose time unnecessarily.
A decisive selection criterion for the technology was also its reliability. Consequently, high-quality and proven products were required that must offer safety in operation.
The access solution was and is being installed in several construction phases and includes all secondary schools in Winnenden. The project started with Education Centre II with grammar school, secondary school and special school, followed by Education Centre I with grammar school, secondary school and primary school.
Altogether, the city of Winnenden currently uses about 620 XS4 Original escutcheons with and without electronic privacy function. By pressing the button on the inside of the escutcheon, access from the outside is only possible with specially authorised credentials. There are only a few of these in the schools. In addition, SALTO GEO electronic cylinders are used for steel gates, distribution boxes and basement rooms, and SALTO wall readers for the lift controls. All classrooms, offices and most external doors are integrated into the SALTO system.
A decisive factor in the choice of SALTO was the electronic privacy function, which enables operation as envisioned by the city's building department.
In addition to the functionality in case of emergency situations, lost keys no longer pose any difficulties - and costs - for the schools in Winnenden, as the electronic systems are much easier to handle compared to mechanical systems and lost cards can be easily blocked. Moreover, they protect the perimeter of the buildings at the same time, especially when there is no school activity, because outside school hours the doors are closed automatically. On top of that, there is now much less vandalism and littering due to the automatic closing of classrooms during breaks.
- Local mechanical emergency lockdown in case of danger
- Lost keys are no longer a problem, as cards can be blocked immediately
- Clear access organisation for all building accesses including automatic locking
- Less costs due to elimination of reordering of mechanical keys and cylinders
- Less vandalism because classrooms are automatically locked during long breaks
- Regulatory requirements for escape routes in schools are met
Winnenden is a town of just under 30,000 inhabitants northeast of Stuttgart. On 11 March 2009, the town hit the headlines worldwide when the Albertville Secondary School became the scene of a shooting spree that killed 13 people in Winnenden and three others, including the 17-year-old perpetrator, during the subsequent escape of the spree killer.
