Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Monday 20 May 2019
Schools turn to apps, other tech to guard against shootings

By STEFANIE DAZIO Share911 launched three
LOS ANGELES (AP) — weeks after the Sandy
Schools trying to protect Hook shooting. The app
kids from mass shootings provides real-time data to
are turning to gunshot de- school employees and law
tection systems, cellphone enforcement, such as the
apps and artificial intelli- type of threat and its loca-
gence — a high-tech ap- tion, based on floor plans of
proach designed to reduce the building.
the number of victims. "You can't decide if you're
Technology that speeds going to run, hide or fight
up law enforcement's re- in the absence of informa-
sponse and quickly alerts tion," said Endress, the CEO.
teachers and students to AmberBox, an indoor gun-
danger is a growing tool shot detection product
amid rising concerns over that looks like a smoke de-
the inability to prevent tector, has a similar philoso-
shootings like the one last phy. It alerts school officials
week at a suburban Denver and law enforcement the
high school. An 18-year-old moment a shot is fired and
student who rushed one of maps the location.
the gunmen died. The system uses sensors that
While a focus on gun control track a gun's muzzle flash
often emerges after school and a bullet's shockwave,
shootings, technology can CEO James Popper said.
be a less partisan solution Chicago-based Aegis AI
that's quick to implement In this Monday May 13, 2019 photo Juliet Fine, principal at Beverly Hills Unified School District's K-8 is refining technology to
Horace Mann School shows the Share 911 phone application on her cell phone during an inter-
— though some experts say view in her office in Beverly Hills, Calif. identify a gun as soon as it
funding preventive mental Associated Press enters an area that a cam-
health resources should be era is scanning. The com-
the priority. ing people at a school, ucts from "ballistic attack- ware, like in all aspects of pany was incorporated a
"We've kind of reached this there are 20 ways to do it," resistant" doors to smoke the modern world, need to year ago and still is working
state of frustration where said Erik Endress, CEO of cannons. The hardening be utilized and used," said to minimize false alarms,
we (feel like we) can't Share911, a New Jersey- market, as well as lobbying Christopher Hertz, district di- such as when the software
protect our students," said based company with an efforts to get taxpayer dol- rector of school safety. "We flags a staple gun or drill,
Dennis Kenney, a profes- app that allows staff to lars to fund upgrades, had want our kids to feel and CEO Sonny Tai said. Most of
sor at the John Jay Col- immediately report to col- stalled in recent years but be safe. ... If we do all this, its clients are in a pilot pro-
lege of Criminal Justice. leagues and police every- rekindled after the Park- then our teachers can do gram.
"What we're trying to do is thing from medical condi- land shooting. what they need to do." Some experts are con-
find some technological fix, tions to active shooters. Now many schools, like the Wealthier areas have not cerned that districts are
and there isn't one." "We can improve the out- Beverly Hills Unified School been immune to violence. embracing technology to
Districts nationwide are come of these situations," District, are combining that Horace Mann parents and allay public concern while
recognizing that and insti- Endress said. "We can mini- kind of hardware with more teachers stressed that they taking money away from
tuting an approach that mize the casualty count." high-tech solutions and and students feel safe with- mental health programs
combines technology with While school attacks are therapeutic programs. in the walled campus, and and violence-prevention
mental health programs, relatively rare, they have "That's like the Number 1 not just because it's in an efforts.
bullying prevention and se- been among the deadliest concept of security for any exclusive area. "It's something you can
curity officers. mass shootings in U.S. his- principal: physical security "I'm grateful I live in this show. I can go to a board
"If I'm intent on shoot- tory. and emotional security of community that has so meeting and hold up this
The 1999 massacre of 13 children," said Juliet Fine, much security, and I know shiny thing," said Amy
people at Columbine High principal at Horace Mann they are protected," Evelyn Klinger, co-founder of The
School in Littleton, Colora- School, which serves kin- Lahiji, 42, said as she picked Educator's School Safety
do, ushered in a new era of dergarten through eighth up her sons, Lorenzo Nagh- Network and a former
school security but the car- grade. dechi, 8, and Leonardo teacher and school admin-
nage continued, including Beverly Hills is among 200 Naghdechi, 9. istrator in Ohio.
27 people killed in 2012 at U.S. school districts using Christina Richner, 45, said Despite the advances in
Sandy Hook Elementary the Share911 app. The her 6-year-old son, Julian, both safety technology
School in Newtown, Con- board of education added and 9-year-old daughter, and mental health pro-
necticut, and 17 deaths it and other measures, in- Olivia, have gone through grams, experts say there's
last year at Marjory Stone- cluding armed security offi- so many emergency drills no foolproof way to pre-
man Douglas High School cers, following the Parkland that "their reflexes will kick dict or stop a shooting.
in Parkland, Florida. shooting. in" during a shooting. Wealthy, suburban districts
Joseph Erardi, a retired In the fall, the district will The students are trained like Beverly Hills that can af-
Newtown superintendent add a central command to gather in a corner with ford the latest innovations
who came to the district center that will monitor the classroom's lights out face as much risk as inner-
a year after the shooting, feeds from all the district's and blinds drawn in a lock- city schools where metal
said lawmakers pressed for surveillance cameras and down, social studies teach- detectors have been com-
"hardening" infrastructure use software to monitor er Laura Stark said. Staffers monplace for years.
at schools. keywords in online search check in via the Share911 "Nobody ever thinks it's go-
That has spurred a billion- traffic for potential threats. app to share information, ing to happen there," En-
dollar industry where com- "Safety in schools is evolv- including if any kids are dress said. "Well, it's hap-
panies manufacture prod- ing. Technology and soft- missing or injured. pening everywhere."q