Teacher panic buttons offer added layer of security, assistance in any emergency

Many teachers have access to a “panic button”. That may sound like it’s related to a threat, but in reality, it could involve any emergency.

Teachers encounter all kinds of issues, including medical problems, fights, and occasionally, the more serious threat.

In some schools they wear panic buttons at all times. It’s a tool to help them protect your child.

Lee County schools teacher Hayley Segal said, “We’ve been trained on how many times to press it in terms of a very big emergency, a small emergency. They are able to see where we are. All of admin knows where we are at that time. So if there’s a bloody nose on the playground, they know where we are, they bring out what’s needed.”

And on the other end of that button, administration and others, like school resource officer Joe Zalenski.

“What that does is that tells us immediately its GPS coordinate, it tells me what room they’re in what person hit it. So we respond to that room immediately,” Zalenski explained. “And there’s a there’s a multifaceted response, someone gets on the phone to that classroom, people are physically going to that classroom, myself administration, and then there’s levels of what that emergency might entail.”

At Caloosa Elementary there are also lights outside the school to alert everyone that there is some sort of situation on campus.