This is the active shooter conundrum that's going on in my area of NJ right now...

[BaiHu]

If it wasn't so sad/scary, it would be laughable: http://villagegreennj.com/marshall-t...uncategorized/

She noted that this activation sent everyone in the school into a lockdown that was complicated by the fact that the alert took place during lunch and recess period with children on the playground and in the lunchroom, separated from teachers. When there was no police response, a teacher dialed the South Orange police via 9-1-1 on her mobile. When police arrived, Greenberg read, they seemed unaware of the protocols for a code red lockdown, whether real or accidental.

As it turned out, Greenberg noted, “[T]he emergency lockdown button was NOT connected to the South Orange Police Department and did not lock the doors from the outside as we had been told. We have since learned that despite the fact that the funds had been budgeted for the schools to be connected to the police departments, Bill Kyle and Cheryl Schneider were aware that this had not been done.”

The video isn't really worth watching. It's a complaint made by the teachers about how effed up this is, but it doesn't illuminate anything other than the collective lack of intelligence regarding the matter.

[Kyle Reese]

Sounds like a command & control / leadership problem to me. A bit of planning, coordination w/ LE and training could go a long way.

Best line in the article;

“Someone will be held accountable.”

I believe that when I see it.

[BaiHu]

Agreed. But how do you start something like this and not finish it properly? Seriously, a panic button to nowhere with no protocol?

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[RoyGBiv]

Agreed. But how do you start something like this and not finish it properly? Seriously, a panic button to nowhere with no protocol?

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Just following a well established government standard.

[Chuck Haggard]

This is my shocked face.

[Totem Polar]

I've got the same face on as Mr. Haggard.

Sounds like someone threw a "panic button" into the school as a placebo, and then forgot about it--either intentionally or in actuality.

[TAZ]

Wonder where the funds to implement the system ended up going?????

Welcome to government stupidity 101.

[RoyGBiv]

Wonder where the funds to implement the system ended up going?????

Welcome to government stupidity 101.

IBEW

[KevinB]

Wonder where the funds to implement the system ended up going?????

Welcome to government stupidity 101.

Do you really wonder, Or was this just a subtle musing

[jnc36rcpd]

While there may be some value in having an alarm system that automatically locks doors, the whole thing seems like a placebo for teachers and parents. When the board of education is asked what they are doing to protect the children, they can point proudly to their panic button.

In the video (yes, I foolishly watched it), the teacher laments that the South Orange Police had only sent one two-officer cruiser and that the event was not treated like an actual active shooter. Of course, in an actual event, multiple calls would likely be received at the 911 center from teachers and students. If the board of education was sold on the panic button being especially useful, shame on them. The vast majority of alarm calls are false activations. I don't know why a school would be any different. Moreover, I have never run a valid robbery alarm when we did not receive calls reporting the robbery as we were enroute.

No one from the school thought that an active shooter might appear during lunch or recess and developed a plan for that? Don't they have lunch and recess daily?

I'm not sure which doors the panic alarm is supposed to lock. That said, the issue is not just what doors are unlocked, but which are already open or are opened after the alarm sounds.

As I said, the teacher seemed to want the police to do something else or something more in their response to a phone call reporting an alarm activation. I suspect she might be upset if the children were "traumatized" by multiple officers responding priority to the school, stacking up with long guns, and shotgun breaching the presumably locked front door.

There are apparently some legitimate alarm companies marketing this type of system. I think the school system dropped the ball on this one.