‘Proactive’ School Safety Tech Testing in Indy
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowAn Indianapolis high school will be part of a pilot program for a new safety platform designed to be more proactive against potential threats than current methods. Maryland-based DMI, which has an Indianapolis office, is partnering with Cathedral High School on what Digital Transformation Solutions Division President Gregg Gallant calls "situation-awareness" technology. The EndZone for Education platform helps provide schools with real-time monitoring and response support by integrating mobile devices and web access already available to students, teachers, administrators and security staff.
Cathedral President Rob Bridges says schools are currently "really defensive" about their safety strategy. "We’re very proactive and we put a lot of resources into other areas of safety, but when it comes to schools, we’re still kind of doing it the old-fashioned way," he said on Inside INdiana Business with Gerry Dick. "We just kind of wait in place and hope for the best — we know we could do so much better and with the idea of DMI presenting EndZone to me where we could be proactive and use our technology to keep our students safe, there’s no way that we could say anything but yes to this."
Gallant says the platform includes an "SOS button" for students and teachers to provide instant feedback via messaging, videos and pictures to safety officials if a potential threat is found. The technology also harnesses data from social media and helps with external communication to various levels of stakeholders — school administrators, safety officials, parents — who can be notified through the platform. Bridges anticipates by fall, the whole school will be on-board with EndZone after a "safety team" of teachers and administrators run through initial testing.