When Florida students return to school next year, there will be a new safety measure in place thanks to a bill signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis last June. Alyssa’s Law, named after 14-year-old Alyssa Alhadeff, a victim of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, requires all Florida public and charter schools to implement a mobile system that silently alerts law enforcement and first responders of potentially life-threatening situations — from shootings to medical emergencies.
But one Florida school is ahead of the pack. Coral Springs Charter School installed and began testing a panic alert system in February before the spread of the novel coronavirus. ABC News saw the system in action before the pandemic with assistance from Andrew Pollack, whose daughter Meadow, 18, was also killed in the Parkland shooting.
Now, Pollack said he hopes the launch of his new program, School Safety Grant, and the implementation of ALERT, or Active Law Enforcement Response Technology, will be one fix when gun laws fail.
The “School Safety Grant,” Pollack says, will help fund school safety enhancement nationwide by distributing grants. Police departments will be awarded up to $40,000 and $20,000 per campus for school districts.
But it’s not just schools, says Lee Mandel, CEO of IntraLogic Solutions. Hospitals, movie theaters, houses of worship and other mass-gathering locations will be eligible. The grants will cover the “full implementation, full deployment and all the software for life,” says Mandel.
IntraLogic Solutions, along with the other School Safety Grant partners, Actuate and SaferWatch, are initially donating up to $20 million worth of software licenses and deployment services that will allow grant recipients to use their existing infrastructure to connect them to their local police departments.
ALERT gives police access to real-time surveillance cameras within a building once a panic button is hit during an active incident or a button is hit on a phone application.
Dispatchers can then identify and track a suspect’s location, and relay crucial information to officers as they respond.
“When they arrive on the scene, they know exactly where to go, how to get in, where the shooter is,” Mandel told ABC News. Mandel began developing the ALERT software after 26 people, including 20 children, were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012.
“It really hit home,” Mandel said. “And we said, ‘How can we make a difference?'”
Mandel said he met Pollack shortly after the Parkland shooting that killed 17 and injured 17 others. Since his daughter’s death, Pollack has been involved in legislative efforts, including the signing of the School Safety Bill in Florida, that in part raised the minimum age to buy a firearm from 18 to 21, banned bump stocks and imposed a three-day waiting period to purchase a gun.
“For me, it’s always been about school safety,” Pollack said. “I don’t want to debate about anything else.”
“There were so many miscommunications, human errors, people not trained properly,” he continued. “This makes police departments efficient. It takes them into the 21st century of response.”
Identifying and solving the problems
Coral Springs police were the first to enter Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School the day of the shooting. The department is the first in the nation to receive ALERT.
ALERT demonstration
ABC News was there in February as Coral Springs police used ALERT for the first time at Coral Springs Charter School.
Officers were prepped beforehand by Coral Springs Director of Emergency Management Alex Falcone. The drill began when Coral Springs Police Department communication center manager Kathy Liriano received an alert that a panic button was hit at the school. Liriano immediately alerted police, then took over the school’s PA system to address the shooter.
“Police are on scene. Shooter, drop your weapon,” Liriano said.
“Once they start talking over the intercom, the shooter may realize, ‘All right, the police are here,’ and they may abandon what they’re doing and try and escape or … shoot themselves. We know that a lot of these active killers have [died by] suicide once the police show up,” Parry said.
Liriano then relays crucial information to officers, including the race of the suspect and their clothing. With the school on lockdown, she is able to unlock the door for police. And as officers rush to the scene, the dispatcher continues to track the shooter in order to give police step-by-step directions to locate and apprehend the shooter upon their arrival.
Source: https://abcnews.go.com/US/exclusive-technology-florida-school-lifesaving-active-shooter-incidents/story?id=72056422