Cullen Browder, WRAL Anchor/Reporter
The headlines are heartbreaking, sick and all too frequent. Towns like Columbine, Newtown, Parkland, and Uvalde—usually quiet places most Americans have never heard of—until massacres occurred at local schools.
Marketing research firm Ombdia estimates that schools will spend more than $3 billion on school security in 2021. North Carolina lawmakers are adding millions to that total to add another layer of high-tech security to the state’s schools.
The newly signed state budget allocates $4.4 million to put panic alarms in North Carolina’s middle and high schools, but not elementary schools as of now.
WRAL Investigates reached out to a local school system that already implemented a panic button program to see how it works.
“We certainly always want to make sure we can do everything we can to keep our students and staff safe,” says Hoke County Assistant Superintendent of Schools Dr. Dawn Ramseur. “We have a plan. We’re practicing that plan. We’re ready to execute that plan. We hope we never have to.”
Hoke County schools began using the panic button in 2018 and adapted it to their needs.
“When we set up this app, we say who gets notified,” Ramseur said.
Although the state has not yet selected a statewide vendor, Hoke County uses RAVE. It allows any school employee to press a button on a cell phone to activate a response to anything from a student allergic reaction, a fire, a suspicious person on campus, to an active shooter.
“There’s no question, there’s no waiting, there’s no explaining, it happens immediately,” Ramseur said.
School staff have activated the app, but most of those cases were medical in nature. However, he added, the school system does a lot of drills with the panic button.
At least twice a year, Hoke County schools practice the app during active shooter and other drills to coordinate communication and response between school personnel, EMS and law enforcement.
“The importance of this is that not only do they get that information, but our staff, everyone from the teachers to the central office,” said Dr. Chad Hunt, the system’s second superintendent.
Many asked: Why not just call 911?
Greg Artzt, CEO of Punch Technologies in Charlotte, has the answer.
“You can be on the phone with 911 for several minutes and if you don’t have time to tell somebody on the ground what’s going on, they can’t lock down that building or evacuate that building,” Artzt said. .
Punch serves schools and agencies across the country with cloud-based alert systems. Punch Alert has been used to coordinate lockdowns and shooter responses, medical emergencies, and even missing children. Texts, emails, calls and action plans are documented in the report.
“It allows you to look back, whether it was a drill or a real incident, and say, ‘Here’s what happened that day, and if you can measure it, you can do it,'” Artzt said.
Those who use the panic button say it’s an important tool for school safety, but only one tool.
“I think it’s just another layer,” Ramseur said.
The panic button complements school staff, cameras, and locked doors, but is not foolproof. Areas with poor cell service or schools with poor Wi-Fi may not get the most out of the technology.
WRAL Investigates found one example where a panic button likely stopped a school shooting in Arkansas. The student told the teacher about a classmate who had a gun. The teacher pressed the panic button and immediately locked down the school. Within minutes, the student was in custody and the gun was confiscated.
While panic buttons don’t prevent all school shootings, they can help save lives over time.
“No one can say it will never happen,” Ramseur said. “We can’t, but we say we’re ready.”
The state budget also includes $220,000 in recurring funds to maintain the system if education officials choose a vendor. The bid deadline is August 18, 2022. The goal is to have the panic system operational by January 15, 2023.
