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 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