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Not too long ago, the only "access issues" a school principal had to worry about were kids darting out an open door to play hooky.

But after Columbine and Sept. 11, the concern isn't so much keeping kids in the schools, but keeping out those who shouldn't be inside. That was evident Thursday in Mt. Lebanon, where for a time school and police officials feared a high school student had been attacked by an intruder.

Controlling access to a school can be a challenge, especially with older buildings that were not built with the thought of keeping intruders out, Montour Superintendent Ron Mento said.

"They were built with many access doors for a lot of good safety reasons," Mento said. "How do you secure 30 doors?

"If someone wants to breach a school building, it can be done."

Officials of several local school districts say they continually review and update their security measures, but won't take any specific action after last week's events at Mt. Lebanon High School, where police say a 16-year-old girl claimed she was attacked at knifepoint but later admitted it was a hoax. More than 50 police responded to the initial call, and the school was locked down for about 90 minutes.

Even though the school's security wasn't breached, Mt. Lebanon Superintendent Margery Sable said school board members and administrators will talk about what they learned from the incident and how to improve security.

Pittsburgh Public Schools Police Chief Bob Fadzen said incidents such as the one at Mt. Lebanon offer the best learning experiences.

"You learn from tragedies," he said. "If you don't learn from that, then shame on you."

The initial report in Mt. Lebanon was reminiscent of an April 8 incident in Shaler, when a 17-year-old ex-student boarded a bus, entered Shaler Area High School and slashed a 17-year-old student who "looked wrong" at the intruder, police said.

Guarding against such incidents presents a two-fold challenge -- protecting students and teachers while providing a comfortable learning environment and offering openness to the community -- said security consultant Kenneth Trump.

"Unfortunately, some of us have been saying for many years schools were too open and too accessible," said Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services of Cleveland. "Schools have done a better job after all of the school shootings and after 9/11. The biggest threat to school safety now is complacency."

A Pittsburgh Tribune-Review survey of several large school districts found the type and degree of security used to keep students safe while they learn varies widely.

Controlling access by limiting the number of open doors is common, as is the use of surveillance cameras. Some use buzzer systems that require visitors to be identified before they are allowed inside.

In Hampton, cameras are located at all doors, and activity can be viewed from a central location. Most doors are locked, except for those in direct view of an office. Hampton police manage the school's security.

"You could think of a million ways people could get in if they really wanted to," Hampton spokeswoman Pat Forest said. "But security has improved a great deal over the past decade."

The general rule in Baldwin-Whitehall is that all doors are locked during the school day, Superintendent Charles Faust said. The district uses electronically secured doors with video cameras at its elementary and middle schools, and contracts with a security company for guards at the high school.

"A concern you already have is how much is the appropriate amount (of security) and how much is reasonable to fund 182 days a school year," Faust said.

Seneca Valley issued identification badges to all secondary students this year, district spokeswoman Linda Andreassi said. Mento said Montour plans to issue identification badges to its students in January.

While Montour must cope with securing an aged high school, Mento said the latest measures will be worked into the district's plans for a new high school and a new building for seventh and eighth grades.

Cameras at doorways and in hallways are common, but metal detectors are rare.

Among those surveyed, Penn Hills and Woodland Hills are the only suburban districts regularly using metal detectors. Seneca Valley uses mobile, walk-through metal detectors on random days, Andreassi said.

In the Pittsburgh Public Schools, police and security personnel carry handheld metal detectors, and walk-through detectors are used at the high schools and larger middle schools.

Fadzen said Pittsburgh is installing $1 million worth of technology, including cameras in all high schools and some of the larger middle schools.

"I think our schools are very safe in Pittsburgh, but any district, be it urban or suburban, is going to have problems," he said.

Districts vary in using their own security staff, contracted security services and police officers. In most cases, guards are unarmed. Pittsburgh school officers carry night sticks, but not guns.

While Mt. Lebanon turned down a grant to post a police officer at the high school, Seneca Valley has an armed Jackson police officer at its high school in addition to its own unarmed security guards. Plum has an armed resource officer and three trained officers who do not carry guns.

"Our schools are as safe as we can make them," Plum spokeswoman Dawn Check said.

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