As soon as Springfield school police chief Jim Farrell heard the phrase "Stop the Prop," a lightbulb went off.

He wanted to borrow that idea to make the state's largest district safer.

Farrell was attending a Missouri school safety conference mid-summer when a speaker talked about the risks of propping open exterior school doors, even briefly.

"He said 'We've got to teach our folks to 'Stop the Prop,'" he recalled. "I was sitting with a couple guys that work in the area. Every one one of us looked at each other."

Farrell added: "It's a real simple concept. It was catchy."

He pitched the idea to Springfield school leaders, who immediately embraced the idea of a "Stop the Prop" safety campaign.

During the first week of school, school police officers fanned out to adhere 1,500 "Stop the Prop" stickers — in the shape of a red stop sign — to the exterior doors of district buildings.

The officers asked students and staff to do their part. And the officers routinely check exterior doors while walking hallways.

"From Columbine to Arapahoe to Marjory Stoneman Douglas to Uvalde," Farrell said of places where school shootings occurred, "every one of those where students or staff members were hurt and killed, had someone that entered an unsecured or propped open door."

In Springfield, all exterior school doors on the sides and backs of buildings are secured during the school day, meaning they lock automatically when closed. Schools also have secured main entrances that require visitors to be buzzed into a vestibule, where their ID can be checked, before they are escorted into the building.

"For us, the only way that somebody, in theory, could get into the outside of our building is if somebody let them in or propped open the door," he said.

"I've said it many times recently, if we keep the bad people out of our buildings, people with ill intent, we'll keep our students and staff safe." 

Asked why a student or school employee might prop open an exterior door, Farrell said they could have 100 different reasons — often innocent.

"A staff member leaves a laptop in a car or something and they're just going to run out to the parking lot to get it and run back in," he said. 

He said students also prop open doors to let classmates in.

Farrell said using designated entrances during the school day may be inconvenient but they are the best way to reduce the chances an unwanted individual will gain access to the building.

Last year, the district employed 26 full-time school police officers, enough to place one or more at each middle and high school. The others patrol the campuses and regularly visit elementary schools.

The district authorized Farrell to hire five additional officers, paid for by federal COVID relief funds, to increase the daily presence at elementary schools. He is in the process of hiring those officers.

Brian Cathey, a school police officer at Carver Middle School, is featured in the district's "Stop the Prop" campaign. In it, Cathey said: "We have to protect our kids, no matter what, and it takes a team effort to do that."

Farrell said for the campaign to work, and for exterior doors to remain locked during the day, it will require everyone working together.

"That building is your community for that period of time," he said. "It's easy to put school safety on the school police officers but the safety of that community is also the responsibility of staff. It is also the responsibility of students."

Claudette Riley is the education reporter for the News-Leader. Email news tips to criley@news-leader.com.