SCHOOL SAFETY & SECURITY
Active shooter incidents have become an ever-increasing threat, resulting in updated school safety procedures and technology. Dealing with this threat has become a high priority for school administrators. The Federal Government opened the National Office for Campus Public Safety, dedicated to school safety practices, in Burlington, VT. In addition, many states are mandating schools review and update their safety procedures.
Protecting students is the highest priority teachers have in the event of an emergency
SecurShade adds window shades to a school's portfolio of safety practices. With a single push of a button, ALL shades in the school will drop instantly while simultaneously sending an alert to selected authorities along with where the system was activated.
Consider the typical lock down protocol facing a teacher who sees a threat:
- Go to a phone to call the office - and hope it's answered promptly
- Explain the situation to a fellow staff member
- Staff member passes the message to the Principal, who broadcasts a lock down alert over PA system (hoping everyone hears it)
- Proceed to lock door(s) and turn off lights while continuing to keep students calm and secure
- Approach windows to manually lower shades to create a safer place to hide
- Calmly move students to the safest spot in the room and keep silent
These vital steps take time and assume all school personnel can instantly shift gears, acquire consciousness of the situation, and become poised to act on the alert. In reality, there are many moving parts that need time to coordinate and mobilize, while the safety of students and faculty hang in the balance.
Alternatively, pushing the emergency SecurShade button closes the window shades instantly - which gets everyone’s attention. And it creates an alert, with location, on a monitor and via text to authorized personnel. This all happens seamlessly in under 10 seconds without any further human interaction. This provides valuable seconds to deter the threat and provide time for the school to lock down, and emergency personnel to mobilize. Once first responders are on the scene they have the option to ask the teachers to raise their shades – indicating safe rooms.
Furthermore, when all the SecurShade shades drop in unison, the shooter's actions may be interrupted. This provides valuable seconds to deter the threat and provide time for the school to lock down, and emergency personnel to mobilize and act.