Nowadays, anything is thrown around as a solution to stop school shootings. Many solutions to outside threats have been suggested, from letting teachers have guns to armed guards in schools. BluePoint Alert Solutions, a company that develops alarm systems, has developed an alarm specifically for police. In its most basic form, it’s an alarm that alerts the police if there is an intruder in the school. That’s not all it does, though.
According to its website, the “BluePoint” alerts police and allows them to communicate at the front desk so they can act appropriately. Additionally, it has gunshot and breaking glass sound detectors for the cops to hear and be able to respond faster with the proper tools. BluePoint also has the ability to open or close doors.In addition to those features, it also offers a command and control feature for people that need to be aware of what is going on with instant text communication to designated groups. It also allows communication with groups inside of the building, so the cops can get as much detail as they can.
So we oohed and aahed over all of its features, but the question is: Do we really need it? It could be very useful now as school shootings and other threats seem to be occurring more often across the nation. With all the school shootings that have occurred in the past two years, schools nationwide have installed the BluePoint Police Alarm, but is this something that the administration and school board should consider installing in schools throughout District 308?
There are many useful advantages and some great flaws about the alarm. False alarms have gone off before and there is a risk of pranks, as we ourselves have seen earlier in the school year when someone pulled our own fire alarm as a joke. It also costs a lot of money, which we don’t have to spare at the moment as we are currently spending money that our district doesn’t have. These alarms were installed in two high schools for a whopping total of $188,000.
Now, it is a great thing for the future but at the moment, it isn’t for us. First, we need to get our district’s budget in order. $188,000 is a lot of money to spend in general, let alone when you are in a deficit. This will be a great addition to our school in the future, because the potential to save lives is greater and it will reduce response-time and get important information to the police quicker.
This isn’t a perfect world. Anything to prevent deaths is great, including these police alarms. But it just isn’t for us yet, especially the costs if they were installed in every district building. If it was $188,000 for two high schools, installing systems district-wide will be even greater. We should wait until we aren’t in a deficit before we purchase this great system. Along with waiting for the deficit to end, we should incorporate the police alarms that BluePoint offers when expanding our district, because we should always be prepared with as much aid as possible in case of an emergency.
