How Instructional Audio Systems Can Enhance School Emergency Communications
Integrating an instructional audio system with a school’s existing communications infrastructure gives teachers the ability to call for help from anywhere.
In the 25 years since the Columbine High School tragedy, we’ve learned a lot about incident response and crisis communications in schools. One of the key lessons we’ve learned is that every second counts in the event of an emergency.
The single biggest mistake we’ve seen in a quarter-century of school catastrophes is a failure to communicate effectively. This includes alerting everyone in the building the moment a crisis develops, notifying parents quickly in the event of an emergency, and communicating with first responders on the scene.
There are two main types of communication during a life-threatening event. The first type involves emergency response transmissions from the moment a crisis occurs, focusing on incident command and response. In these situations, even fractions of a second can make a huge difference in saving lives.
In the event of an active shooter or other life-threatening situation, instant communication is critical. The immediate priority is notifying everyone in the facility so they can take appropriate action. Studies of prior school shootings have shown that students and staff have about 30 seconds to lock down or evacuate. For the building’s occupants to seek safety, schools need a fast and reliable emergency notification system that alerts everybody to an incident in progress as quickly as possible.
Immediately notifying the police and other emergency first responders is also essential. Following the tragic school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that claimed 17 lives, a growing number of states have passed laws requiring all public elementary and secondary school buildings to be equipped with a silent panic alarm connected directly to law enforcement or appropriate district resources. This legislation, known as Alyssa’s Law, honors 14-year-old Alyssa Alhadeff, a victim in the Parkland incident.
The second type of communication is crisis communication, involving the school district being transparent with the community by releasing timely and accurate information. Over the years, parents’ expectations for how quickly they expect to be notified have increased exponentially.
It used to be that school districts would have about an hour to release information to the public. In the aftermath of Sandy Hook, this expectation dropped to 30 minutes. Now, it’s down to about six minutes. Social media and texting have accelerated the speed at which districts must release information if they want to head off rumors, control the narrative, and meet parents’ demands.
To adhere to this timeline, a crisis communications plan is absolutely essential. This plan should include pre-established templates and scripts that allow communications officers to fill in the details and get accurate information out to stakeholders in a timely manner.
Using Classroom Instructional Audio Systems for Emergency Communications
There was a time in the not-too-distant past when a school employee would have to pick up the phone and dial a code for the school paging system to notify everyone in the building there was an active shooter or other incident in progress.
That’s still a viable way to notify stakeholders of a crisis, however, it’s not always the fastest method because somebody has to reach that phone.
If a teacher or other employee could initiate an alarm at the touch of a button from wherever they are in the building, this could save precious seconds — and lives.
One emerging solution to this challenge is combining the instructional audio systems — also known as classroom audio systems — used to amplify teachers’ voices for instruction with existing emergency communication systems, giving teachers a quick and reliable way to summon help when it’s needed.
Instructional audio systems have become an invaluable tool for ensuring all students can clearly hear instruction while giving teachers the flexibility to move freely around their classroom. These systems typically include a lanyard microphone for the teacher and speakers placed strategically around the room, allowing students to hear instruction more effectively.
By integrating an instructional audio system with a school’s existing communications infrastructure, including paging, intercom, and telephone systems, schools can give teachers the ability to communicate with administrators and/or call for help instantly from anywhere in the building using their lanyard microphone.
Michigan’s Hart Public Schools is piloting this type of approach within its buildings. The instructional audio system the district is using from Lightspeed includes three programmable buttons on the teacher’s microphone. The district has configured one of the buttons on the microphone to initiate a silent emergency alert that teachers can press if they need immediate assistance. Pressing the button sends a discrete call for help to the front office. It also initiates an alert in the system’s web console that identifies the type of alert and the teacher’s location, whether in their classroom or another part of the building. The second button summons help if teachers need assistance in a non-emergency situation, and the third button initiates a two-way call to the front office.
Training for School Emergencies with Fidelity Is Also Key
Whatever technology schools choose for emergency notification, leaders have to train students, staff, and emergency personnel how to respond to a crisis quickly and appropriately. Every employee should understand how to initiate an alert, and all stakeholders must know what to do once an alert is triggered. Training stakeholders with fidelity is fundamental to saving lives.
Timely and effective communication is a core element of any school safety plan. When notifying students and staff in the event of a crisis, every second matters—and combining an instructional audio system with a school’s existing communications infrastructure gives teachers an instant notification tool that offers simplicity, mobility, and immediacy.
John McDonald is the Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer for the Council for School Safety Leadership. Jason Gale is the Director of Technology at Hart Public Schools, which serves more than 1,300 students in western Michigan.
Published: November 8, 2024
Author: John McDonald and Jason Gale
Tagged with: Crisis Communications, Crisis Planning, Emergency Communications, Emergency Response, First Responders, Police, School Safety, School Security, Student Safety, Systems Integration