'Panic button' app deployed at 27 school buildings in New Castle County, Red Clay district

Jessica Bies , Jessica Bies | The News Journal

Show Caption Hide Caption All Red Clay schools will use panic button app The Red Clay School District is the first district in the county to have all its buildings enrolled with a smartphone app that quickly alerts police to a shooting or medical emergency. 6/1/18

Red Clay School District Superintendent Merv Daugherty knows he may not be able to prevent a shooting at one of his 27 school buildings.

"But we can prepare for it," he said Friday at a special event marking the deployment of a cellphone app that lets school staff instantly connect with 911 operators and vice versa.

It's called "Rave Panic Button."

The concept is pretty simple, New Castle County Emergency Communications Chief Jeffrey Miller said.

The app has been installed on teacher and staff phones districtwide.

On the main screen are several big buttons, labeled as follows: active shooter, fire, medical, police, other.

If someone walks into the school with a gun, any staff member can take out their cellphone and tap the big red "active shooter" button, initiating a call with 911 operators, Miller said.

Other staff members would get an alert letting them know the panic button had been activated, while back at 911 headquarters, a profile of the school would pop up on the dispatcher's screen, complete with the building's address, integral employee contact information, blueprints and satellite imagery.

If the call is disconnected or the person who hit the button can't safely talk, 911 dispatchers can use the app to send text messages. They can also send out alerts to the rest of the building, advising teachers and students to either shelter in place or evacuate.

"It's a much quicker way to get the word out," Miller said. "We're arming our teachers with technology."

County Executive Matt Meyer said if it was up to him, the Rave Panic Button app would be deployed statewide.

As it is, the county purchased the technology about 18 months ago. It cost about $200,000, Miller said, not including annual licensing costs.

The goal, Miller said, is to ensure emergency dispatchers and responders have the most information possible when responding to a potentially dangerous scene. Schools' security cameras can also be looped in, Miller said, and the plan is to get Red Clay's integrated by next fall.

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Then, rather than dispatch police, firefighters and EMTs to an "unknown emergency," dispatchers can tell police what they're seeing firsthand.

Daugherty said the system is preferable to permanent panic buttons, which are typically located in the school's office and aren't as readily accessible.

Other schools have purchased emergency fobs, which teachers wear around their necks and when pressed, set off a schoolwide alarm and notify local law enforcement. Students then barricade themselves in a corner out of view of a potential shooter looking through the window of a locked, bulletproof door.

After several recent school shootings, including one in Santa Fe, Texas, on May 18, state legislatures all over the country have moved to appropriate money for school safety upgrades and panic buttons, Daughtery said.

In Delaware, one bill would require all newly built and renovated schools to have a panic button or intruder alert system that is capable of being activated from the school office and a handheld device. It got passed by the state House Tuesday.

Miller said he is getting his feet wet at Legislative Hall this year and trying to convince legislators to invest in Rave Panic Button, given the success New Castle County has had getting it going at Red Clay. The Colonial School District has also implemented the system at some of its buildings, as has Salesianum School and the Siegel Jewish Community Center in Talleyville.

All county-owned buildings are also equipped with the app at this point, and Miller said any organization or facility in New Castle County can request to be added to the program by emailing panicbutton@nccde.org or (302) 395-2700.

"I'm passionate about it," Miller said of the issue of school safety. "I have kids in public schools."

Meyer, who used to be a math teacher, said the app can help schools cope with any type of emergency, whether it be a full-scale attack or medical crisis.

"You never know when it will happen," he said, "when a student's heart will stop or there's an active shooter."

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Contact Jessica Bies at (302) 324-2881 or jbies@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @jessicajbies.

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