Pinellas County Schools adopts new panic alert system
LARGO, Fla. - There have been multiple safety changes in schools across the Tampa Bay area since the 2018 Parkland school shooting, and Pinellas County Schools will soon make its latest safety upgrade with a new panic alert system.
An active threat in a school being reported on the SaferWatch app.
Currently, teachers and staff use a phone app called SaferWatch to alert the district of an emergency, but now they are adding a simple panic button the size of an ID card to help save lives.
What is the new system?
What we know:
It looks like a little white card worn alongside an employee’s badge. It is the district’s new panic button system, Centegix Crisis Alert.
The Centegix white badge educators will carry to alert to danger.
"You simply just strike a button a certain amount of times on the ID badge, and that will actually initiate our entire lockdown process for both campus, the district, and for law enforcement and emergency responders throughout Pinellas County," said Sean Jowell, a school safety specialist with the Pinellas County School District.
Jowell said the school board approved a $3.8 million contract with Centegix in December. Pinellas County Schools said its employees will use Centegix in tandem with SaferWatch, a mobile app alert system they’ve used since 2021.
What educators say
"I think it’s been proved technology like this, this type for the ease of use, for the muscle memory, it’s going to save lives," said Jowell.
How this affects your children
Why you should care:
With the app, every employee must pull up the app and go through a few steps to alert law enforcement if there’s a crisis, according to Jowell. He said the Centegix button simplifies the process. The district said both options will be available to staff.
Pinellas County officials running a school safety simulation.
"You may be right there where you can’t access your phone; you wouldn’t access your phone. But this is quiet. It makes no sound, no noise," said Jowell. "So, if you run, you hide wherever you go to, and if you are in the process of running from one location to another area of safety, you can just start pressing on that button."
Jowell said the new system uses the latest safety technology and complements the district’s existing systems.
According to Centegix, when employees press that button, their precise location information is quietly sent to the district down to the floor and room. They can also talk to emergency responders discreetly, a feature that will matter if an emergency happens in the classroom.
"We have some staff that wear it on a lanyard, some staff that wear it on a belt loop like I do, every day it’s there," said Jowell. "It’s muscle memory that I have; I just have to press the button down, and help will come."
Jowell said there’s a failsafe built-in just in case the button is pressed by accident.
When will Pinellas County implement the new system?
What's next:
The school district aims to roll out the new system to all 14,000 employees in the coming months before the end of the school year in May.
The Source: Reporting for this story was done by FOX 13's Briona Arradondo.
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