Michigan Parents Say Nightlock Door Stops Helped Save Kids' Lives

Parents of students who survived the Oxford High School shooting in Michigan say Nightlock door stops helped save their children’s lives

As more and more details emerge about the Oxford High School shooting in Michigan that left four dead and seven injured, parents of students who attend the school say things could have been much worse. A number of parents credit Nightlock, a company that has installed extra strong door stops throughout the school district, with saving the lives of their children and potentially hundreds of others in the school.

Jack Taylor, the co-founder of Nightlock, told local news station WEYI that the company has installed nearly 700 door barricades at Oxford High, with at least one inside every classroom in the building. Since hearing that news, parents have been expressing their gratitude for Nightlock and the role these door stops may have played in preventing more injuries and deaths in the shooting, which happened last month.

“Thank you… Specifically to Joe, we’re so grateful for what you did, and I hope you know that what you do saved so many kids,” said Carri Morris, an Oxford High School parent.

Rick Morris, another Oxford parent, added, “Nightlock worked, they should be in every building, in every school.”

Workers at Nightlock say they’ve received a number of phone calls from grateful parents in the aftermath of the Michigan shooting.

“It just breaks our hearts,” Taylor said. “When we first got into this business we knew we could help. We were in the residential barricade business, helping protect people’s homes, but when we started working with the schools and protecting people in schools it was a new mission.”

Last year, the State of Michigan passed legislation that now requires door barricade devices, like the door stops made by Nightlock, in all schools. The move was meant to protect children from shooters and other violence that might happen in their school buildings, and Nightlock has now installed door stops in every school in the Michigan district that includes Oxford High.

“We hope that they’re never used, they’re just there for extra support,” said Taylor, who added that in the nine years his company has been supplying door stops to schools, they’ve only hoped that they’d never need to be used. The Oxford High School shooting was the first time that Taylor knows of that his company’s devices were used in an actual emergency in a school.

“They’re there in case there’s an emergency lockdown,” he said.