School officials, state legislators and advocates gathered Friday at Richton Square Elementary School to celebrate the passage of Alyssa’s Law, which will encourage Illinois schools to implement mobile emergency alert systems in the name of school safety.
Lori Alhadeff said she believed a more timely emergency response to the 2018 school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, could have saved her 14-year-old daughter Alyssa’s life.
“My daughter Alyssa was in the first classroom, Room 1216,” Alhadeff said. “When the gunman walked onto campus with the gun bag, he walked past the security guy on the golf cart who didn’t call the lockdown, he didn’t press the panic button. I truly believe that if he had called the lockdown, Alyssa would be alive today.”
Alhadeff, who founded the school safety organization Make Our Schools Safe, has supported versions for the law named after her daughter across the country. This year, Illinois became the 13th state to pass a version of Alyssa’s Law.
“We should not be living in, I call it the Parkland bubble,” Alhadeff said. “Meaning, thinking that this is never going to happen to you.”
The Illinois General Assembly passed House Bill 5107, and it was signed by the governor Aug. 7. It says Illinois schools and school districts “shall consider the use of a mobile panic alert system in the development of their school emergency and crisis response plans.”
“This is such a crucial layer of safety protection in a school shooting, for our teacher to be able to press her panic button and know it’s directly linked to our 911 center, so law enforcement can get on the scene as quickly as possible, take down the threat, stop the killing and save lives,” Alhadeff said.
State Sen. Michael Hastings, who co-authored the legislation with state Rep. Nabeela Syed, mentioned the 2023 shooting at Hillcrest High School in Richton Park, where 14-year-old Marshawn Mitchell was killed after a homecoming game.
“That tragedy reminded us all that in the south suburbs, there is no community that’s immune from shootings,” said Hastings. “That’s exactly why we can’t wait, and why we have to prepare.”
Hastings represents Illinois’ 19th District, which covers a swath of the south and southwest suburbs.
Drew Koenig, director of advocacy for Centegix, one of the companies that supplies such a mobile panic alert system, demonstrated a small badge with a built-in emergency alert system for teachers and staff to wear on lanyards.
The badge had a button that could be pressed three times to call the office for an event such as a medical emergency, and eight times to connect directly to first responders.
“Time equals life,” said Alhadeff. “In Georgia, a staff member survived a cardiac emergency because her panic alert connected responders to her exact location.”
As a next step, Alhadeff called on Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the state legislature to dedicate funding to help school districts cover the cost of implementing the system.
Hastings said he spoke to some companies willing to run trial programs for schools at no cost.
“Our school funding debate has always been one of a lot of sitting down and negotiating where we put our priorities, and this should be one of them,” Hastings said.
Koenig said that on average, implementing a mobile emergency alert system would annually cost about $8,000 per campus.
“It’s a really cheap system, when you think about the uses and how often it’s being used,” Koenig said.
Most of the uses will be for circumstances such as medical emergencies rather than active shooter situations, Koenig said. One benefit of the system is it provides a more accurate location to first responders, who otherwise would go to the front desk first and be directed from there, he said.
Centegix is just one of several potential vendors for a mobile alert system, Koenig said. Some states with versions of Alyssa’s Law have also approved funding and made the adoption of the system a requirement, he said, but Illinois is not among them.
“Alyssa’s Law, obviously, every state is different,” Koenig said. “Some states you’ll have a fully funded mandate, like Utah.”
Superintendent Blondean Davis of Matteson Elementary District 162 praised the legislation, saying when a school is in lockdown, all students and staff can do is wait, which makes the timeliness of the emergency response crucial.
“We’re not armed in the way that we could possibly do anything to protect our children,” Davis said. “That’s what we’re waiting for.”
elewis@chicagotribune.com
