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Get an immediate connection to law enforcement and other first responders during a school emergency.
How quickly can your teachers and school staff alert first responders when disaster strikes? Is it a matter of seconds or minutes? When it comes to a school emergency, every second counts.
Not only do teachers and staff need to be able to act quickly in a crisis, but they also need ease of access. This means they need a number of different ways to call for help, whether that’s through a physical panic button, a digital panic button on their desktop, or a panic button app on their smartphone.
CatapultEMS’ emergency management solutions include an easy-to-use, mobile-enabled panic button alarm that is integrated with emergency dispatch. This integration allows school personnel to send alerts directly to the right local first responders in Code Red emergencies, often beating traditional 911 calls.
Because of our integration with emergency dispatch, your schools get a direct line of communication to the right local first responders, which means they can bypass the typical delays that occur with the general 911 call center.
Local law enforcement and school officials are notified within seconds in an emergency, allowing them to respond to incidents faster.
On-site staff can hit a physical panic button or access the digital alarm button through their desktop, tablet, or smartphone, ensuring they can call for help no matter where they are.
When someone uses the panic button, the system automatically captures their GPS coordinates and room location so first responders know where to find them.
Incident statistics and trends that help school district officials make informed decisions
Once a panic alert is made, teachers and staff can communicate directly with emergency dispatch to provide more information about the incident. They will also receive important emergency response directives and updates via desktop and mobile takeover messages.
With CatapultEMS integrations, administrators can give law enforcement automatic access to a school site’s cameras and other safety systems once the panic button is pressed.
Teachers and staff are trained in advance on when and how to use the alarm button, helping to better prepare them for emergencies.
With CatapultEMS, the panic button alarm is integrated into the school’s emergency management system, allowing for more rapid communication and response as well as insights into incident data.
School emergencies can unfold and escalate quickly, which means on-site staff needs to be able to respond just as quickly in order to keep everyone on campus safe. A panic button allows teachers and staff to notify law enforcement and first responders of a crisis right away, which can lead to faster emergency response and potentially save lives.
Our system takes it a step further. Instead of going through the 911 call center, which goes to a general dispatcher, we connect our system’s users directly to the local first responders that the school partners with. This is like cutting the line, as it gets emergency information to the correct first responders sooner and allows them to respond without delay.
Panic button alarms should be used in Code Red emergencies, or any emergency in which there appears to be a serious threat to the safety of students and staff at a school site or a school district facility. Code Red emergencies usually trigger school or facility lockdowns, which require teachers, staff, and students to remain behind locked doors until they are given clearance by law enforcement to resume normal activity.
It is possible for panic buttons to trigger false alarms. However, it is important for schools to have panic buttons available in the event of a true emergency, especially those in which timely emergency response is critical to the preservation of life. Many school districts implement panic button systems with the understanding that the benefits of rapid emergency response far outweigh the inconvenience of occasional false alarms.
CatapultEMS has prompts in place to help confirm that staff members understand that they are initiating a panic button alert, which can help reduce the incidence of false alarms.
With the rise of mass shootings across the nation, including on school campuses, more K-12 school districts all over the country have been implementing panic button alarm systems. Data from the National Center of Educational Statistics from November 2022 shows that 43% of schools reported having panic buttons or silent alarms with a direct connection to law enforcement, compared to 29% during the 2017-2018 school year. It should also be noted that some states have enacted laws requiring the implementation of panic buttons in their public schools.
Alyssa’s Law is a piece of legislation that requires public elementary and secondary schools to install silent panic alert technology that allows emergency alerts to be sent directly to law enforcement. The purpose of the law is to improve student and staff safety by allowing for more expedient emergency response in the event of an on-campus emergency.
Alyssa’s Law is named after 14-year-old Alyssa Alhadeff who lost her life in a school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in 2018.
The law was first passed in New Jersey in 2019 and it has since been passed in Florida, New York, Texas, and Tennessee as well. Alyssa’s Law has also been introduced as a bill in other states and at the federal level. Some states have established school safety grant funds that can be used for the implementation of panic buttons on school campuses.
You can find Alyssa’s Law updates on the Make Our Schools Safe website.
At CatapultEMS, our panic button solution is part of our integrated safety management system. This means the alarm button is connected to other important emergency response features that are part of the CatapultEMS system, such as two-way communication with law enforcement, automated safety notifications, student-guardian reunification assistance, and more.
CatapultEMS can be integrated with a school’s existing physical panic button, as well as with public address (PA) systems, IP phone systems, and much more.
Learn more about our system integrations or talk to our team to find out how our panic button and emergency notification software fits in with your existing tech infrastructure.
