A First Responder’s Insights on School Safety: Achieving Clarity in Emergencies
Former dispatch supervisor Jason Klink outlines how wearable panic buttons and dynamic campus mapping eliminate critical information gaps for first responders.
In school safety, how a school partners with the surrounding community makes a big difference.
I’ve been a 911 dispatcher and a supervisor, and I’ve felt that sense of urgency when a call hits the screen. I know what it’s like to try and keep a caller calm while simultaneously trying to pull every scrap of actionable data out of a chaotic situation.
In those critical first moments of an incident, whether it’s a medical emergency or a threat on campus, officers, medics and firefighters are ready and want to help. The real challenge is the information gap. For emergency responders, a response is only as good as the information fueling it.
Three Common Barriers to Effective Emergency Response
Uncertainty can start within the first minute of an emergency, slowing the response time. There are three common issues that regularly hinder emergency response.
- Awareness of the Incident is Delayed: Teams can lose time because the right people don’t know help is needed. Responders need to know as quickly as possible that an incident is occurring.
- Location Information Is Old or Incomplete: “Near the science building” is not the same as “4th floor, room 409.” Time is lost searching. A person who needs help could also be moving at the time of the emergency, delaying the ability to find them. Most critical incidents in schools occur outside of the classroom and there is not always even a room number to provide. In the 2024 to 2025 school year, a report found that 60% of alerts from wearable panic buttons came from outside of the classroom. Responders may need to navigate to specific areas of hallways, parking lots or sports fields. Having access to campus-wide mapping and precise-location information is vital to effective response.
- Systems Don’t Work Together Under Stress: Radios, phones, apps and procedures can leave gaps in critical moments. When considering safety technology, adoption and reliability are key issues. For example, a district might have invested in a safety app for staff to install on their phones and use to get help. However, only a small fraction of the staff have it downloaded or some haven’t logged into it in months or don’t remember how to use it. Moments of high stress are not the time to ask people to remember complicated, multi-step instructions to signal for help. Phones might not have service or could have low battery at a critical moment.
When considering safety planning, consider how you will make sure your response is not delayed by these common issues.
