On Friday, June 3, Hart County School Superintendent Jay Floyd provided a safety and security demonstration for local leaders at South Hart Elementary. This demonstration was intended to show how the school system has prepared and will continue to prepare for potential threats going into the coming school years.
The demonstration came amid a national conversation regarding school safety. On May 24, a gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, killing 19 students and two teachers. This is the most recent school shooting in a disturbing trend over the past couple decades.
Floyd released a statement on May 25, which read in part, “Hart County Board of Education’s priority is to keep our students and staff safe. That is why we chose CrisisAlert by CENTEGIX, a company that creates safe spaces by empowering and protecting school staff members and students.”
The June 3 meeting at South Hart was an opportunity for Floyd to explain how the alert system by CENTEGIX works and how it has been incorporated into Hart County schools so far.
“This year, we started using CENTEGIX; that’s the CrisisAlert part,” said Floyd. “Part of the security stuff that we have is a phase-in. We actually got CENTEGIX with CrisisAlert three years ago, and it was installed three years ago.”
Floyd revealed that though the system was installed, it was not widely operational.
“Now, the administrators knew how to operate it, but none of the staff did because of COVID,” said Floyd. “COVID interrupted our training.”
The school system has been able to resume its training with the new security system, and will continue that training in the coming school year, he said.
During the 2021-2022 school year, teachers received a CrisisAlert badge that they are to keep on their person at all times. It can easily accompany their ID badge on a lanyard and can be used in a variety of ways.
The badge has a panic button on the back, which when pressed a certain number of times, can signal one of six alerts. Administrators would receive that alert directly on their phones and personnel in the front office of the school would be alerted as well.
“If you’ll look at this computer screen, that’s a map of the school,” said Floyd, showing South Hart during the demonstration. “What happens with CrisisAlert, based on your location, you click this button a certain number of clicks, and you set off one of six different alerts.”
“Depending on the number of clicks that you use on this card it will set off an alarm,” said Floyd. “Now, the most common that we found out this year is a staff alert. A staff alert would mean that you are with a group of kids and you have a kid who has a medical emergency or a seizure. It’s probably used for that more than anything.”
If a teacher sets off an alert, administrators would be able to look at a map of the school and see where the alert was set off. The map would have a red dot indicating where the alert came from, and the system automatically records who set off the alert where and at what time.
Additionally, the map is in real time, so if the teacher who set off the alert has to move, the red dot will move as well.
The CrisisAlert badge also gives each staff member the ability to place the school on lock down if the button is pressed a certain number of times.
“This thing was intended to be phased in,” said Floyd. “This year we tried to get all of our teachers trained, but I found out that even as of two or three weeks ago maybe, Hartwell Elementary just got their badges.
“We wanted to get our staff familiar with it, be able to use it, learn how to use it, and then eventually we’ll be able to phase that out to safety and security.”
Teacher training and practicing these scenarios with students will be a big part of this new system moving forward. The alert system will be able to aid in everything from staff alerts to tornado warnings and lockdown situations.
“I can select all schools and do a tornado warning,” said Floyd. “Used to, I’d have to contact all the principals individually. If I needed to, I could activate a tornado warning or a tornado drill right from my phone.”
In certain situations, like a tornado warning, or a lockdown, the system would set off an automated alarm in the school giving instructions to teachers and students.
“I just know it’s a great tool that will give us an advantage,” said Floyd. “What if somebody can’t get to the [microphone] to do an announcement? What if a principal is not available, who is going do that? This auto announcement here is something that we can use to put a school on lock down quick.”
The alert system accompanies recent upgrades to camera surveillance systems and access to the school buildings overall.
“First of all, you can’t get in unless you’re buzzed in,” said Floyd. “The upgrade of the video cameras — that’s something that’s new. We’re trying to make sure that all the schools are at the same level with video cameras.”
Classrooms are also equipped with EduCam360. This camera system allows for classroom activities to be recorded and reviewable if necessary.
“EduCam360 is a video camera in the classroom that automatically starts recording if this red dot is in one of these classrooms,” said Floyd. “If you know we’ve got an issue you can look in the camera and see what is going on.”
Keeping students and staff safe is the biggest priority for HCCS, Floyd said.
“Ninety percent of what we do [as administrators] is preventive; that’s all we’re trained to do,” said Floyd. “We try to prevent everything from happening to begin with.”
That said, there are some preventative measures suggested elsewhere that Floyd is not interested in, such as requiring students to scan into all academic buildings with ID badges, or the arming of staff members.
“People talk all the time about arming staff members,” said Floyd. “I’m totally, 100 percent against that.”
Floyd is concerned that in the heat of the moment, it would be hard for law enforcement to discern between the shooter and a staff member who had been approved to carry a firearm.
Floyd did raise the question, “Can we provide our school resource officer (SRO) a high-powered rifle that’s in the school somewhere?”
This concern stems from the shooting in Texas, where the gunman was protected by full body armor and armed with two long guns.
“I don’t know the answer to that question,” said Floyd, “but that’s a problem if they’re going to be wearing full body armor.”
The school system will be meeting with county officials and local law enforcement on Tuesday, June 21 to further discuss school safety in Hart County.
Read Hartwell Sun, Hartwell, Georgia
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 700, 8 Benson St. Hartwell, GA 30643 Phone: 706-376-8025 Fax: 706-376-3016
© 2022 Hartwell Sun, Hartwell, Georgia