Tragedy Strikes

Tragic active shootings have forced educators and administrators to rethink school safety. An active shooter looking to cause harm can easily gain entry into a school by shooting a window’s glass and walking through the resulting window opening. That is how Adam Lanza and Aiden Hale entered Sandy Hook Elementary (Sandy Hook, CT) and The Covenant School (Nashville, TN), respectively.

Delay Forced Entry

3M Safety & Security Window Films with Impact Protection Adhesive can help prevent unwanted entry by hardening a school's glazing. While window film will not stop a bullet (no window film will on its own, no matter what you read), it will help to hold shattered glass in place to effectively slow down an intruder, giving students and teachers critical time to get to safety and security personnel to respond before entry occurs. The installation of 3M Safety & Security Window Films to exterior and interior school windows can be an effective and inexpensive way to keep your students and staff safe from bad people.

Glass Hardening

Heavy glass usage in a school building is a double-edged sword. On one hand, large windows provide students and faculty with necessary sunlight throughout the day. Additionally, glazing can give those inside visibility to outside dangers, allowing emergency personnel to be contacted sooner rather than later. However, many attackers gain entry into a school through entry / exit glass doors or large windows.

Making perimeter glass resistant to forced entry can help maintain the aforementioned benefits of glass intense curtain walls while also delaying attackers who would otherwise gain entry without much effort. This gives students, faculty, and administration more time to implement any emergency plans in place.

3M Safety & Security Window Film Solutions

Schools throughout the country have been using 3M’s strongest and toughest security films (ULTRA S800 and Safety S140) coupled with its Impact Protection Adhesive (IPA) as part of their glass hardening strategies for many years.

3M’s security films are clear and transparent, providing near-invisible protection to help hold broken glass in place, no matter what the trauma (blunt force, firearm, bomb blast, seismic, windstorm, spontaneous). These tough and tear-resistant films have helped to protect people, property, and continuity of operations since the late 1960s.

A New Generation

In 2024, 3M introduced its Scotchshield Safety & Security Window Film System S2400, which marks a new era in the fragment retention film market. That's because this new and innovative film is manufactured of urethane, which is more flexible than traditional PET-based films and provides substantially greater Elongation at Break (560%). That translates into greater tear resistance and performance in certain applications and situations. 3M S2400 has been tested to the following standards:

• 16 CFR 1201
• ANSI Z97.1
• UL 972