Beyond panic buttons: Three ways to enhance day-to-day and crisis communication in schools

4-minute read

Enable staff to communicate quickly, directly and effectively

School administrators are all too aware of the threat of violence in our nation’s schools today. Post-incident reports from government agencies and commissions following tragic shootings are rife with recommendations intended to help schools prevent future acts of gun violence, and to help law enforcement respond more effectively. Recommendations that can be addressed within schools themselves include (but are not limited to) shoring up policies and procedures, with more effective planning, preparation and training; hardening doors and windows; and improving crisis communication.

Our focus turns to the recurring theme in post-incident reports of communication breakdowns within schools and between schools and law enforcement, because we have solutions that can help.

This article looks at examples of where crisis communication has broken down in more recent incidents, and three ways schools can enhance it with help from Stryker’s Smartbadge – a unique device that can be likened to having a panic button, phone, two-way radio and PA system all in one small wearable.

1. Hardwire protocols into your communication system

Reports following recent school shootings suggest that staff members faced barriers to communicating effectively in a crisis. In one instance, radio failures caused communication delays and confusion that hindered authorities from coordinating a response, and 911 call routing problems impeded people in dire distress who were trying to get help.¹ In another example, someone called a Code Red that couldn’t reach people in the hallways or outdoors because there were no PA speakers in those places, while fire alarms led people to follow evacuation protocols that put them at risk.²

Now, imagine a situation where a staff member sees a threat, and they can press a panic button built into a communication device they wear all the time. But this is no ordinary panic button. This panic button discreetly opens a communication channel that broadcasts to an on-campus response team. The response team can see the staff member’s name and location, hear what’s happening and communicate directly with the person if the situation allows. The response team can coordinate crisis communication across the campus and with authorities as needed, according to protocol. They can also communicate directly with teachers to inform them to go into lockdown and ignore conflicting direction from a triggered fire alarm or anything else.

This is what happens when a user presses the built-in panic button on our lightweight, wearable Smartbadge, and a school’s communication protocols are hardwired into our communication platform.

Beyond the panic button, staff members can use the Smartbadge every day and in an emergency to communicate one-to-one and with specific user groups via voice calling or secure messaging, all without needing to know names or numbers. They can even use simple voice commands to initiate communication hands-free.

2. Equip staff to communicate anytime, from anywhere on campus

During an active shooter incident at one school, several district employees used the school’s emergency alert system via a smartphone app to send a lockdown alert.

As it turned out, there were two significant problems.

First, employees did not always reliably receive alerts from that system – for example, if their phones were turned off or stowed, or if they had to log in to a computer in order to see a notification.³

Second, the active shooter alerts were not differentiated from certain less-critical alerts staff had been receiving with nuisance-level frequency, so they didn’t respond to the active shooter alerts with appropriate urgency.³

A communication device is of use in a crisis only if it’s with the user wherever they are on campus, and turned on. And notifications are of use only if they are accurate and meaningful to recipients.

Because a teacher can wear Stryker’s Smartbadge, the device is likely to be with them and at the ready when they need it most. They can set the Smartbadge to Do Not Disturb (DND) to allow focus on education activities. DND mode can be overridden in an emergency.

With the Smartbadge, school administrators have a voice in how protocols will be hardwired. They can help ensure that notifications will be differentiated from one another and intuitive to the teachers, secretaries, support staff, SROs and maintenance team members who receive them.

3. Integrate communication with campus security technologies

In more than one case, a perpetrator entered a school building through an unlocked exterior door.^1,2

Imagine a scenario where exterior doors are integrated with your access control, campus security and communication systems, allowing a resource officer or security team to promptly receive a “door unlocked” notification and take quick action.*

Our Smartbadge is part of an enterprise communication platform that can integrate with campus security systems for situational awareness, mass notification and more.* The platform can route alarm and system notifications to the right people at the right time⁴ to help speed law enforcement and EMT response and allow broad communication in the event of a threat.

We’re here to help

Every school should be a secure and safe place where teachers and students can thrive.

At Stryker, our solutions have been helping healthcare teams for more than 20 years with proven, reliable communication where lifesaving activities are critical. In the same way, we’re here to help schools empower staff to communicate quickly, broadly and effectively in a crisis, no matter the situation.

Visit stryker.com/school-safety to learn how our all-in-one communication and security solution can help you create a quieter environment for teaching and learning – and a communication hub for school safety and security.

*Requires integration with Stryker’s Vocera Engage intelligent middleware. Capabilities are based on your facility’s protocols and technology configuration.