New Blue Valley school security system can quickly call for help

As students return for winter break this week, Blue Valley school staff members now have a new method for responding to campus emergencies.

Teachers and other faculty members were trained earlier this week on the district’s new CrisisAlert system, which allows individual staff members to call for help anywhere on a Blue Valley campus by pushing a button on a wearable security badge.

Staff push the button three times to call for help

When pressed, the badges send an alert requesting immediate attention for situations like a fight or a student medical emergency.
“We know who the teacher is [pressing the button] and precisely where they are in the building,” Dan Carney, Blue Valley’s director of safety and security, said.
The badges work both inside and outside of any school campus in the district.

Badges can also initiate lockdowns

If a staff member presses their badge eight times, it sets off emergency lights and prompts a pre-recorded lockdown announcement to play throughout the building.
The CrisisAlert platform also sends the alert to the district’s head office, so district administrators can initiate more emergency protocols remotely.

Blue Valley security — The Blue Valley school board voted to issue a five-year contract with CENTEGIX in September. File photo.

Blue Valley has a five-year contract for the security system

In September, the Blue Valley school board voted unanimously to approve the contract with school safety solutions company CENTEGIX, who makes these badge systems.
The addition of the $1.8 million CrisisAlert system was funded by Blue Valley’s 2020 bond referendum, which was approved by voters in January 2020.
The Olathe School District put the same system in place in August, following a school shooting at Olathe East High School in March of last year that left three people injured.

Go deeper: New Blue Valley security system will allow staff to call for help with push of a button