School safety is an issue of concern. Children’s well-being, knowing they are being taught in a safe environment, is paramount. Schools throughout the United States are plagued with the threat of violence, not limited to one geographic or socioeconomic area.
Vendors must understand the issues at hand and work with officials to develop applications that enhance safety levels. They must offer tools to respond to any emergency that may arise, working within existing communications infrastructure while expanding the school’s reach to parents and students via home, dorm, cellphones and SMS messaging.
The ideal solution is based on four components, Interactive Emergency Notification. 911 Caller Location, On-site Security and Administrator Alerts, and Call Recording and Logging.
Interactive Emergency Notification
An emergency notification tool provides a centralized command center for alerting and notifying school security or emergency personnel, campus staff, students and parents, in multiple languages when necessary. Emergency broadcast must be to a wide variety of end points. For colleges this may mean student cellphones via voice call or SMS/text messages. They may also distribute alerts to networked LCD display panels on campus or to any wireless devices.
911 Caller Location
Typically when a 911 call is placed, the call-taker at the public safety answering point (PSAP) receives only basic information on caller location. That may include a street address with little else and poses a serious threat if the caller is unable to tell emergency personnel exact location.
The modern campus features Enhanced 911. Detailed information about the exact location where the call was initiated is delivered to the local PSAP dispatcher, and emergency service personnel and school safety officials are able to respond. This is a service that has become law in many states, and it is expected that many more will follow. Tremendous marketing potential exists for schools providing E911 as parents can be assured they are sending their child to an institution that has made an investment in his or her safety.
On-site Security and Administrator Alerts
In large campus environments and school districts, administrators often do not know that 911 has been called until emergency first-responders arrive at the scene or they are notified by local police.
From a health crisis to a bomb scare, a school’s reaction to a situation varies depending upon the circumstances. In the case of a sick or injured student, both school officials and emergency personnel need to rush to offer assistance. In a situation that threatens student safety, the reaction is very much the opposite. Students and faculty need to be rushed away from the scene. A safe campus must be equipped with the tools to most quickly and accurately assess the situation and respond accordingly.
Call Recording and Logging
When a threatening or questionable call is answered, the person answering should have the ability to quickly and easily initiate a recording. Some systems offer the ability to press a key on the telephone set or PC to trigger a chain of events that includes recording the entire call, even if the threat was made before the key was pressed, sending the audio portion to safety officials and performing a trace for the source and location of the caller. In many cases a short message up front such as “All calls are subject to recording” can eliminate a large percentage of false alarms and unnecessary worry.
Telecom-based safety solutions protect an untold number of students across the United States. Providers are committed to working with institutions to develop better technologies to address times of need. The desire to maintain a safe environment extends beyond schools into businesses and other private organizations with implementations of E911 and interactive mass messaging. The best moments are the reports received from users when applications provided have been credited with saving a life.
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