Every school district occasionally deals with minor emergencies like severe weather, medical situations, and having to pass bad news along to faculty, staff, or students. Unfortunately, too many school systems must deal with serious situations like weather tragedies and active shooter situations. While nobody likes to think about these things, they are real events and all educators need to be aware and be prepared.
Whether your worst-ever emergency is a lockdown while police round up a runaway convict in the neighborhood or something much worse, you need a communications solution that fits the school environment.
You might think you’ll just pick up the phone in an emergency. All too often, that isn’t an option.
One of the first things damaged by severe weather or destroyed by an intruder with nefarious intentions is the wiring to phones or other communications systems. That makes wired systems like landlines a bad thing to depend on when an emergency occurs. Even cell phones can be unreliable in bad weather and in the interior of sturdy buildings like schools. Plus, by the time a teacher or administrator learns of the event and reaches a phone, it could be too late to save many of those precious lives on campus.
A wireless security solution that is portable allows the right people (administrators, faculty, staff members, etc.) to carry a communications device wherever they need to go on campus or even off campus. With the simple push of a button, the responsible party can communicate in any event or situation, even if landlines are cut, cell towers are down, or a cell phone is broken or taken away from the user.
Sometimes all you need to do is communicate with first responders, such as the local police, firefighters, or ambulance service. Other times you need to broadcast to everyone on campus or across multiple campuses, such as in an active weather situation. Then there are occasions when you need to deliver a specific message to a limited number of people, such as those attending to a sick or injured child. The right campus communication tool will allow you to communicate with the right people at the right time.
There are also times when it is imperative that you get confirmation that the message was received. For instance, you might need confirmation that help is on the way for a student in a medical crisis, or you may need to hear back that everyone is locked down and staying in place as a scary situation unfolds. School districts need to consider communication tools that are flexible enough to allow for all of these various situations and more.
When the safety and security of students is threatened, even the smartest, most educated, best trained educators can lose their cool and forget how to operate a complex communications system.
Perhaps most importantly, school districts need a communications tool that is easy to use. When students are at risk, bad weather is hitting, or someone is on campus threatening lives, no one is in the mental state to use an overly complex system. People need a simple, intuitive solution that gives them the power to communicate quickly and effectively, even under duress.
TTI has the perfect solution for school districts that is reliable, flexible, and easy to use. This system is ideal for mundane communications like system-wide announcements, as well as the emergency situations that schools today, unfortunately, must be prepared for. Call TTI today to request a quote and get your school district prepared for any emergency.