This Dartmouth man taught through scary times. Now he works to make schools safer.

DARTMOUTH — In 1992, when Dartmouth resident Ray Oswald earned his teacher's certification and began taking as many opportunities as he could to work as a substitute, he had no idea where the path would lead to, or the experiences he'd have along the way. Today, when he isn't focused on his real estate work, Oswald says he's often busy in his role as a consultant for Skypath Security — a relatively new company specializing in a high-tech security system which the town native says is poised to set a new standard in school safety.

"My kids always used to say, 'Mr. Oswald, why do you lock the door all the time?'" Oswald said of his classroom habits as a substitute teacher. "I would say, 'because I saw what happened to Jason Robinson.'"

Actually, in the literal sense, Oswald was coincidentally spared from witnessing the infamous deadly attack that unfolded the morning of April 12, 1993, in a Dartmouth High School classroom, but the long shadow of fear and sorrow it cast over the community was inescapable, he said.

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"I happened to be out," Oswald said as he recalled the day 16-year-old Robinson was stabbed in front of classmates by teens who'd entered from outside the building with weapons. "So, I didn't see the terror in the building that day but if I had been in, I would have been right across the hall."

'Scary as hell'

Years later, Oswald says he faced peril in the classroom directly while working as a sub at Whaling City High School, located on the third floor of the New Bedford Public School Department building on County Street. This time, Oswald said, the threat of violence stemmed from two students said to be associated with rival gangs, and a dispute over court proceedings. "I had them both as students on my roster at different times," Oswald said.

"It was sometime after lunch — the school resource officer calls out 'Lock it down! Lock it down!' I didn't know what was doing on, but the kids did," Oswald said, noting his classroom door was already locked. While he says he was able to manage, without incident, the pandemonium that followed — including having some students wanting to exit the room to be closer to the drama — Oswald calls the experience "scary as hell."

"We just hid in a corner — because that's what you were told to do — and hoped for the best," he said. "The doors that we had at Whaling City High School, the top half was just glass — that's not stopping a gun — and you weren't going out a third-floor window without a rope, so it was panic.

"I tried to stay cool, which I did on the outside, but on the inside the adrenaline is flowing."

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Chance meetings & new paths

However unsettling, those experiences weren't enough to keep Oswald from working in schools. In the years to follow, he took on more substitute assignments in various schools, including LaSalle Academy in Providence, RI, where he worked regularly during the 2014-2015 school year. By chance, the relationships he built during that time would lead him to his current role as a consultant for Skypath Security.

"It was at the I was just going back to reunite with some of the kids I knew were going to be on the field," Oswald said of the 2015 high school football game where LaSalle's principal introduced him to David Paolo — an early internet mogul who would go on to become president and CEO of Skypath Security. After the two hit it off, they exchanged contact information and kept in touch.

Then, more recently, as Paolo was moving forward with his latest idea — a company focused on developing, installing and servicing high-tech school and building security systems — Oswald said he was more than ready to accept the invite to be a part of it.

"When I went to his office in Warwick and he showed me what the software does, I was blown away," Oswald said.

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How it works

According to Paolo, the advantage of his company's primary product — known as the Skypath Mobile Defense Platform — is its ability to greatly reduce the amount of time it takes for first responders to assess dangerous situations so that tactical action can be taken sooner rather than later, and with enhanced efficiency.

"In an instance like Uvalde, where it took them (law enforcement) an hour and 20 minutes to get in ... this greatly reduces that time down to seven minutes from the time 911 is called, to first responders being able to effectively make a safe entry and neutralize the situation as quickly as possible," Paolo said, noting that aside from active shooter situations, Skypath can be used in a variety of scenarios such as natural disasters or fire as well.

According to Paolo, what makes such a time-savings possible is the way Skypath provides first responders and all parties involved with up-to-date school blueprints and a live breakdown of information such as an attacker's description and location, rooms where staff and students are reporting being trapped, and more.

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"The teachers will have the app on their phone, so if they hear gunshots they will be instructed to immediately lock their doors and have their students take cover in a particular area, and they'll press one button on their phone," Paolo said. "So as first responders are rolling to the event, they will be pulling up the live schematics and blueprints of the building which will give them — to scale — things like points of cover, places to hide, and all of the building layout."

Additionally, as Paolo explained, as Skypath links civilians and first responders during a situation, it would also be looping in a staff of trained ex-law enforcement personnel from Skypath who would assist in monitoring the situation. "And if there are cameras in the facility, they can tie right into our platform," Paolo said, though noting the fully software-based system is designed to be operable without the need for any additional purchases. "There's no hardware to buy, so it's very affordable for municipalities to be able to install this."

Paolo also noted a crypto currency initiative, via a non-profit entity dubbed the SkyToken Foundation, meant to offset costs in cases where the Skypath platform is not affordable; and said there are insurance discounts associated with Skypath's assessment process.

How it's going (and where — maybe)

The company's primary product — known as the Skypath Mobile Defense Platform — began its launch around the end of the last financial year, and is already installed in several locations, according to Paolo, noting the software is based on widely-used construction management software. "This is a platform that currently manages over $200 billion worth of construction projects all over the world, so it's not some bleeding edge new technology that doesn't have years of life and experience behind it," Paolo said.

Paolo says he looks forward to what's on the horizon for Skypath, after successful talks with the state of Florida on becoming an official vendor to bring facilities into compliance with Alyssa's Law, which implements new security standards for public school buildings; and he notes that discussions have begun with Texas state officials. "We're working with schools in Canada right now also," Paolo said. "We're getting blueprints sent in to us to begin the assessment process."

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Talks with Dartmouth

As pleased as Oswald is to see the progress Skypath is making around the country and internationally, he says it'll be difficult for him to feel personally satisfied unless he can make an impact where he lives, which is why he took the opportunity to make his pitch to the Dartmouth School Committee at their most recent meeting.

"It is a technology that I think every public building should have, and especially, every school should have. ... Dartmouth can step up and be the first one on the SouthCoast," Oswald said to the School Committee and members of the administration earlier this month. "It is time the schools, and the state, stepped up...."

Dartmouth Public Schools Chief Technology Officer Jonathan Gallishaw says he's had outside correspondence with Oswald about setting up a meeting where he can learn more about Skypath. Gallishaw said he expects that will take place over the summer, and he planned on following up with Oswald about it soon now that school is out.

"I think we need to see if the product fits the things we need — how does it mesh with our procedures," Gallishaw told The Standard-Times, "because we want to make sure it compliments what our procedures are."

For more information on Skypath, visit www.skypath.com.

This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: Dartmouth's Ray Oswald consulting for Skypath school security firm