City schools look at badge that summons help at touch of a button
Jul. 5—THOMASVILLE — Thomasville City Schools have taken a look at a security measure that could allow staff to call for help with the push of a button on a badge.
Brent Coleman of Centegix showed school board members the features of the badge, which is similar in size to the identification badges worn by school personnel.
"We have to think, how can you respond?" he said, noting the incidents that have taken at schools in recent years. How fast can we get behind a closed door? How do we make our buildings as safe as possible?"
Coleman cited statistics showing that on average, 18 million kids are injured at schools across the country each year. Also, 70% of school nurses deal with a life-threatening emergency.
"And you don't know when that is going to happen," he said. "Our motto is every second matters. This is the quickest, safest, fastest, easiest way to send for help and to lock down a building."
Each school staff member and employee would have a badge and each badge has a button, and the button triggers two kinds of alerts.
"It is going to protect the entire campus, the entire footprint," Coleman said. "The right people that need to know an emergency is happening will know right away."
Depending on the alert, Coleman added, there will be flashing lights and a message will be broadcast over the school intercom. A school map will show a flashing red light where the person who activated their badge is on campus.
Coleman said they have had several stories of the badges' success. In one instance, a 4-year-old student had stopped breathing and instead of the teacher wondering whether to leave to get help or to stay with the student, she pressed the button on her badge to summon assistance.
In other situation, this one in metro Atlanta, a student pulled out a knife and stabbed another student, and a Centegix badge with a button allowed for help to come quickly, according to Coleman.
The second alert is a campus-wide alert, and it is activated after the button is pushed eight times quickly.
"We tell teachers to keep pressing it until lights start flashing," Coleman said.
That alert sends out an intercom message for a lockdown alert and allows for law enforcement to be notified automatically. There is also an app for administrators to use to lock down schools, and a superintendent near Augusta locked down two school buildings near a reported armed robbery without leaving the desk.
Board member Karen Kelso said she was teaching emergency medical responders in Tift County when the school system there put it in place.
"Knowing you have this is is amazing," she said.
Considering the Centegix proposal is among the many things the school system is weighing to improve school safety, city schools operations director Ben Tillman pointed out.
