It’s just a bill
Wednesday, Dec 18, 2024 - Posted by Isabel Miller
* Rep. Janet Yang Rohr filed HB5923 yesterday…
Creates the Mobile Panic Alert System Act. Provides that the Act may be referred to as Alyssa’s Law. Requires, beginning with the 2026-2027 school year, each public school to implement a mobile panic alert system capable of connecting diverse emergency services technologies to ensure real-time coordination between multiple first responder agencies. Requires, for the 2026 fiscal year, the State Board of Education to issue a competitive solicitation to contract for a mobile panic alert system that may be used by each school district. Amends the Charter Schools Law of the School Code to make a conforming change. Effective January 1, 2026.
Click here for more background on Alyssa’s law.
* A mobile panic alert system similar to Rep. Yang Rohr’s proposal was used during a school shooting in Georgia ABC…
The deadly shooting Wednesday at a high school in Georgia has drawn attention to the school’s use of a panic button system to alert the threat.
Two students and two teachers were killed when the alleged 14-year-old suspect opened fire at Apalachee High School in Winder, authorities said. Nine others were also injured, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said.
The suspect — 14-year-old Colt Gray, a student at Apalachee High School — was encountered by three school resource officers and immediately surrendered, according to Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith. He was taken into custody at 10:30 a.m. ET, seven minutes after the initial service call went out, according to the Barrow County Sheriff’s Office, which employs the school resource officers. […]
Smith said all teachers at the school have an ID made by the safety technology company CENTEGIX wherein they can press a button to alert an “active situation.” The button was pressed during the active shooting situation on Wednesday and the school resource officers began “actively looking,” he said.
* Florida passed legislation requiring panic buttons in classrooms in 2020. CNN…
Florida adopted Alyssa’s Law in 2020, named in honor of Alyssa Alhadeff, who was 14 when she was killed in the Parkland shooting. The law requires public schools to install a silent panic alarm system in schools that is directly linked to law enforcement. In the absence of gun reform, proponents of Alyssa’s Law say a silent panic alarm system can reduce response time in the face of gun violence or a medical emergency. […]
Funding is generally built into the laws at a state level. Florida allocated $6.4 million in recurring funds to help schools implement panic button systems.
Brent Cobb, CEO of Centegix, a company specializing in safety technology, told CNN the cost of outfitting a school with his company’s panic button systems is about $8,000 a year. […]
[Centegix] released a report in January showing of about 15,000 alerts sent within Texas schools, 98% were for “everyday incidents related to health and behavioral emergencies.” The report cites incidents of cardiac arrest and seizures on campus, where a panic button was used to quickly get help.
In 2019, the Illinois State Board of Education reported a total of 4,231 public schools across the state. Outfitting each school with a panic button at an estimated cost of $8,000 could amount to nearly $34 million.
* New York also passed legislation, though it only requires schools to consider installing the alarms…
The measure requires that schools consider the usefulness of silent panic alarms when developing their district-level school safety plans, and expressly authorize their inclusion within building level safety plans. The panic alarm systems themselves can cost a few thousand dollars to purchase, and can be implemented in the classroom as a smartphone app, according to a statement released by the governor’s office.
“It’s not a mandate, but I stand here today to ask all school districts to adopt this,” Hochul said during a signing ceremony in Manhattan. “Please, please consider this technology to protect your students and your staff and your administrators. It will save lives.”
Thoughts?
- Larry Bowa Jr. - Wednesday, Dec 18, 24 @ 10:59 am:
I think that states that aren’t going to help local districts pay for this shouldn’t be congratulating themselves at bill signing ceremonies.
Hard to think of a more empty accomplishment than an unfunded recommendation that doesn’t address any root cause and just dumps more safety/security responsibility on school teachers. “In the absence of gun reform” is carrying the entire weight of this discussion and putting millions of public money in the pockets of companies providing security theater.
- JS Mill - Wednesday, Dec 18, 24 @ 11:06 am:
Thoughts? They are not “panic button systems” and panic is exactly what you do want. These systems are emergency response systems and are FAR more than “panic buttons”. The system we use is through an app and allows communication between responders and allows access to building maps, student and staff rosters and alerts first responders. We can send out different types of alerts to staff and give specific directions. The system we use is in wide use in Illinois and our local law enforcement is connected to ours. BUt it is about much more than school shootings. Our system can be used in any kind of school incident.One of the biggest uses is for reunification. People don’t realize (until you have been through a drill) how complex that aspect of the post crisis really is. The alert system we use has an entire set of functions dedicated to that.
The other thing is that these are relatively inexpensive. Ours, including support and training, costs less than $3,000 annually.
Our provider actually does offer a literal “panic button” but we use the app and everyone has it.
The bill is fine, I am sure there are districts out there that have not implemented a system (I have no idea why) so they really do need to get on board.
A funny aside, I cannot count how many times in the last few years that I have been sitting in out of district superintendents meetings and someone’s alert goes off because their district is conducting a drill. And they are loud. Unless you shut your phone off you cannot silence the alert. Which is a good thing.
- H-W - Wednesday, Dec 18, 24 @ 11:07 am:
Technologies will not prevent school shootings (except for biometric locks of weapons that prevent children from using parents weapons).
However, the technologies mentioned here will reduce the number of people killed and injured to some degree, and as such is worth finding ways to fund. The psychological benefits outweigh the fiscal costs sometimes, and increasing school safety is a priority for most Americans (and Illinoisans).
It is also possible that upon knowing this technology is in place, disturbed students may be less likely to use weapons is schools.
That said, the ultimate technologies that would prevent children from accessing weapons without immediate parental permission, and technologies that prevent weapons from firing, need to become a priority for adult Americans (especially parents) who wish to have weapons in their homes, whose children know exist in the home (or find in the home).
- JS Mill - Wednesday, Dec 18, 24 @ 11:09 am:
@Larry Bowa Jr.- You are not wrong, but schools I think have simply resolved ourselves (I was not asked to speak on behalf of “schools” but I think this is a shared sentiment) to do anything and everything that we can to make our kids and faculty as safe as we can possibly make them while still maintaining the feeling of a school and not a fortress.
But you are definitely not wrong.
- Donnie Elgin - Wednesday, Dec 18, 24 @ 11:18 am:
=Creates the Mobile Panic Alert System Act=
This is a good bill, hopefully, it will attract bipartisan support. It is smart to use the old “politics is the art of the Achievable” approach.
- A - Wednesday, Dec 18, 24 @ 11:41 am:
Anything that helps.
Teaching children is a dangerous job
- Pot calling kettle - Wednesday, Dec 18, 24 @ 11:46 am:
@Larry Bowa Jr.- Agree…it is very frustrating that our society is so resistant to addressing the root causes of the problem: The availability of guns combined with the underlying assumption that a gun can solve your problems. Until we decide to address those two root causes, we will continue to see lives lost and increasing amounts of revenue spent on bandaids for a broken leg. To be clear, this is not something any state can address; it’s a societal problem that will take years to reverse (and removing guns would have minimal effect if the culture of gun worship is not also addressed).
- Two Left Feet - Wednesday, Dec 18, 24 @ 12:20 pm:
@JS Mill
At the School Board conference, there was a session on reunification. The logistics were incredible. Transportation. Food. Activities. Medication. Special Needs. Checkin of parent/guardian. Verification. Location of student. Bad actors. What if student shooter ends up at reunification site? Line of cars. News. How long at site? Parents at work hours away. Are police, fire (EMT) and administration coordinating? Plan it, practice it.
- 47th Ward - Wednesday, Dec 18, 24 @ 12:48 pm:
===Outfitting each school with a panic button at an estimated cost of $8,000 could amount to nearly $34 million.===
Maybe it’s time to consider a special firearms tax to cover some of this cost. We could get additional revenue for this by increasing the sales tax on ammunition.
Just a thought.
- Larry Bowa Jr - Wednesday, Dec 18, 24 @ 1:09 pm:
@JSMill, I am definitely not blaming schools. I think teachers and administrators are in an impossible position with regard to their duty to keep kids safe running up against the federal judiciary’s commitment to having as many guns in the population’s hands as possible based on a warped, goofy brained reading of history and precedent.
- Wisco Expat - Wednesday, Dec 18, 24 @ 1:09 pm:
I think the “panic button” is a great idea. It doesn’t just help in potentially violent situations, as others mentioned - it also helps during medical emergencies and other scenarios where assistance is needed.
However, this bill is only a band-aid. In Wisconsin, the first 911 contact was made by a second-grade teacher. Police department medics were at a training center 3 miles away practicing for a mass trauma incident such as a mass shooting when they received the call from dispatch.
Until federal lawmakers can grow a spine and reject NRA money to save lives, this bill seems like the best we’ve got.
- Frida's Boss - Wednesday, Dec 18, 24 @ 1:20 pm:
It’s a good bill.
Personally, I think anytime a legislator pushes a bill that costs someone else money, not the state funds, they should have the revenue needed to be attached. Either cut another mandate that may not be necessary anymore or propose new taxes/fees on people that create revenue.
The whole trick game of “subject to appropriation” is just a way to pass a bill and get kudos, but it doesn’t work unless it is funded.
- ThePointIsRightThere - Wednesday, Dec 18, 24 @ 2:29 pm:
Maybe if we started considering these acts of terrorism and cared about school children the way we care about CEOs things would improve.
- JS Mill - Wednesday, Dec 18, 24 @ 3:53 pm:
=@JSMill, I am definitely not blaming schools. =
I definitely didn’t take it that but thanks for laing that out.
I agree with what you wrote.
This bill is not a “solution” to school shootings. It is a required response mechanism when a shooting happens. It may lessen the loss of life, but probably not due to the fact that these shootings happen so quickly and most are concluded by the time police respond on site. It will likely not be funded at a level that is meaningful and many schools already heave something in place that covers the requirements of the bill.
- Leslie K - Wednesday, Dec 18, 24 @ 4:38 pm:
@JSMill, thank you as always for your thoughtful and informative comments.