Lake County School District improving crisis response system for new school year
LEESBURG — A new school year brings new and improved security measures for Lake County schools.
After a string of school shootings in the past year across the country, the Lake County School District is upgrading its crisis response system for the 2022-23 school year, which starts Wednesday. With the installation of their new Centegix Crisis Alert System, schools will have the latest technology with improved state-of-the-art panic buttons to protect staff and students.
"It is important to have an effective crisis response system in schools so that those who are trained to eliminate the threat as quickly as possible are notified effectively and efficiently," Joseph Mabry, Safety & Security Supervisor for Lake County Schools, wrote in an email to the Daily Commercial.
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A look at the new system
The new Centegix Crisis Alert System is currently being installed in all elementary, middle, and high schools in the Lake County School District.
According to Mabry, this new system will include a panic alert system that connects users to emergency first responders and to 911 in compliance with Alyssa’s Alert. This is a bill passed in 2020 that requires each public school in Florida to implement a mobile panic alert system at the beginning of the school year.
It uses a panic button attached to a lanyard that will be worn by all staff members. As soon as the button is pressed, all staff are notified via methods such as text, strobes, audible announcements and computer screen takeover.
"All staff members will be required to wear their issued and assigned panic button at all times while on campus," Mabry said.
Local situations vs. imminent threats
There are many different circumstances under which the panic button could be pressed, but they're spilt up into two categories — local situations and imminent threats.
In a local situation, teachers and staff will be able to notify the school's emergency response team for situations that require assistance from administration, a nurse, school resource officers, a guidance counselor or a mental health liaison.
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These instances could include medical emergencies, major disruptive students and fights. Alerts in this case do not connect to 911,but are managed by the school team on campus.
However, in imminent threat situations, staff can use the panic button for emergencies that warrant the dispatching of first responders.
"This primarily would involve an active assailant situation where law enforcement response is required immediately to eliminate the threat," Mabry said.
In an active shooter situation, all available law enforcement officers from multiple agencies would be en route to the school immediately.
Added security
The premise of the crisis response system remains the same, but the Centegix Crisis Alert System includes an added layer of safety and security.
Lake County Schools has had a panic alert application since 2018, which was two years before the Alyssa's Alert legislation and three years before the requirement to implement it.
"This is being added so that we can mandate that all staff members comply with wearing the panic button." Mabry said.
Lake County Schools' previous panic alert application required users to download an app on their cellphone and it relied on cell service or Wi-Fi. This new and improved system does not rely on either and is more precise locating an incident, even if it is within a multi-level school building.
"The previous version of the panic alert will still be available and will still be used by our law enforcement officials to monitor our camera systems during a crisis once alerted," Mabry said.
Due to the size of the district, there will still be a period of 90 to 120 days before the installation, configuring, training and implementing of the new crisis response system will be complete.
This article originally appeared on Daily Commercial: Lake schools implementing new crisis response system for school year
