As a startup company in Tampa Bay, we find ourselves being caught up in everyday business work such as sales, marketing, technology updates and customer service. We often discuss news stories about education, technology, and school safety. When the news came out about STEM School Highlands Ranch shooting in Colorado, we were reminded why we work so hard to build the best School Safety Tech Tools in the Market.
Across the country, there have been eight school-related shootings this year. This month STEM School Highlands Ranch shooting in Colorado which resulted in 7 injured and 1 fatality. We know first hand, that leadership at this school is very committed to safety from multiple discussions with their leadership.
These terrible tragedies happening at alarming regularity is devastating to the mental well-being of our children. Some of our Children are scared and their parents are terrified. Most of our teachers also feel an immense sense of responsibility and constantly stress about “what if” scenarios. Effective use of School Safety Tech Tools will mitigate some of these issues.
Prevention, reaction, and protection are three areas that our system uses with schools. Our dismissal system provides an efficient and safe daily dismissal technology to the school. While Kid.io provides schools with an overall safety system.
Prevention:
Often after these shootings, we learn there had been multiple warning signs. These students talking about shooting the school or acting in other ways of violence. Which a lot of times students don’t take too seriously,. They sometimes do not know how to react due to the possibility of getting someone in trouble. They are sometimes afraid of the student or not knowing who to talk to about it. Our Anonymous Tip Line offers a safe space for these types of behaviors to be reported without the stress of being identified. The entire purpose of this platform is to ensure that every “joke”, overheard conversation and suspicious activity can be safely reported and dealt with appropriately.
Reaction:
Our system is a technology-based solution. Every teacher has a cellphone, which in this case is their tool. This is due to our Panic Button. Alert first responders even if the situation restricts verbal communication. The Panic Button offers an easily accessible way to report ANY emergency to the authorities immediately. Not only the appropriate authorities but fellow co-workers and parents as well. The Panic Button includes a silent alarm that alarms everyone with the app without the loud alarms and dangerous panic that can ensue. This includes multi-channel communication. During any emergency, contacts will automatically receive text messages and phone calls.
Protection:
Location services provided by the Panic Button software is helpful. It allows schools & emergency services to locate troubled areas instantly. In an emergency, time is everything. Our technology eliminates the time it takes for someone to call the authorities by being able to just use the app. The authorities are able to know the location and assist in the emergency at hand. This also allows staff and students to avoid these areas and know where to go to have a safe space or evacuate safely.
We strive to provide safety solutions for schools. The PikMyKid team consists of parents, educators and industry thought leaders who see and believe in this system wholeheartedly. We live in a generation where technology is at the forefront of everything we do. We should be leveraging technology to create appropriate safety solutions. PikMyKid and Kidio do precisely that- Leveraging the power of innovative technologies to provide cost-effective safety solutions to schools.
