One of our priorities from day one has been to increase security at school. We have done so with a new visitor management system that we are gradually implementing, a security greeter in some of the buildings, a second SRO, and now we are adding an Emergency Alert System for our staff called “Raptor”. This is an application just for employees that will allow them to notify the right people in a hurry whenever they notice something unusual.
As you can see in the attached picture that it is a phone app and is specific to each building. On the front page of the app is 6 buttons –
Secure – Which means everyone should be indoors and building entrance doors locked.
Lockdown – which means class room doors locked and everyone in the room is away from sight, silent and do not open the door.
Hold – Clear hallways and remain in rooms until it is announced all clear.
Evacuate – This will be to evacuate the building and it will be stated why. Shelter- Mostly likely for a tornado. This will allow us to drills also.
Team Assist – Is for specific requests or needs.
There is not a parental app for this, but I do know students will probably talk about it some days when they come home if it was used. If we do a lockdown at school that is not a drill, we will notify parents via our texting system after the situation is addressed and explain why we went in to Lockdown. When an employee notices that one of these buttons should be pushed and does it, all staff in that building will be notified within 1.5 seconds - it makes a fog horn noise on their individual phones. When the system is activated, there will also be an announcement over the intercom for that building. We will start using this system PK-5 mid-January and 6-12 in the latter part of January.
There will be some growing pains with implementing this and it is very possible that the first month there could be some accidental activations. This will give us a good chance to practice our reactions. Just remember, if we had an actual lockdown, I will notify you that we did via our alert system and why there was a lockdown as soon as the situation is managed appropriately. I will not notify you every time the other buttons are used for real, drill, or accidental. On these other buttons, I will notify you when I think it could be helpful for you to know.
Staff will talk to their classroom students about this system and help explain to them how we will react to notifications. This app also allows each staff member to notify us during an emergency or drill which students are unaccounted for. If you have any questions about this, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Thank you,
(316) 776-3300
