A new bill requires AEDs in all schools and sports venues
On Tuesday, July 22, Mike DeWine signed House Bill 47 at Worthington Kilbourne High School.
Some central Ohio school districts are implementing a new technology to help staff members speed up crisis reports to first responders — technology used by a school in a shooting in Georgia last week.
Both Worthington City Schools and New Albany-Plain Local Schools tell The Dispatch that they are implementing a wearable device called the Centegix CrisisAlert, which gives staff the ability to speed up a response in the case of an emergency.
The same technology was present at Apalachee High School and law enforcement said it led to a swift response when a student allegedly fatally shot two students and two teachers last week during school, USA Today reported.
New Albany has implemented the technology in all five of its schools, and each teacher, bus driver and other faculty is issued one, Ken Kraemer, assistant superintendent, said. Using the technology, they can immediately report an incident requiring an administrator response or even call for a building-wide lockdown and alert 911 if needed.
“The ability to notify an administrator quickly, previous to this technology was, ‘I need to get to my cell phone. I need to get to my classroom phone. I need to find the right number. I need to call that number,'” Kraemer said. “We’ve been really pushing the fact that there’s a high level of trust that we have in our staff to give them the power to be able to do these things.”
Jeff Maddox, assistant superintendent at Worthington, said the district began piloting the Centegix program this year in some schools after it took a look at its three-pronged approach to safety including building safety, response plans and mental health.
While the device can also be used for emergencies like an allergic reaction or a student fight, Maddox said what happened at Apalachee High School is a district’s “worst nightmare.”
“My hope is Centegix offers that extra layer to, number one, empower people who saw something that was going on, which then affords the first responders to minimize that response time,” Maddox said.
The program costs New Albany-Plain just under $50,000 a year, and Worthington is currently paying nothing while it pilots the service.
How does Centegix CrisisAlert work?
The Centegix CrisisAlert is a fob worn on a lanyard that features physical buttons and connects to district administrators and first responders. If a staff member presses the button, three times to notify administrators and eight times to lock the building down, it also immediately alerts district leaders on their phones and computers, Kraemer said.
The technology can be used for situations that require both internal and external responses. For example, pressing the lapel three times can inform the district administration that a fight is happening, according to USA Today. And if a staff member believes an intruder or shooter is on campus, they can repeatedly press the button, which notifies district officials and first responders.
The exact location of the alert’s origin is sent to responders on a digital map, showing where help is needed in real time, the company says.
@Colebehr_report
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Publish date : 2024-09-12 23:02:00
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