ARTICLE TOOLS

E-mail story

Comments

Printer friendly version

iPod friendly version

Share This

Text Size: A A A A

Walker County: Parent alert system passes live test

By: Chloé Morrison
(Contact)

Included in this article

Michael Tipton

When officials found a bomb threat scrawled in a LaFayette High School hallway Monday, parent Roger Carlton said he appreciated getting a text message notifying him the school was being evacuated.

Mr. Carlton and his wife, Kelly, have two children at the school, and she had called her husband concerned.

The school system’s new parent notification system helped keep the couple informed — and calm.

“They sent me about a zillion text messages about it,” Mr. Carlton said. “I thought one would have been sufficient.”

Michael Tipton, Walker County coordinator for school improvement, said there are glitches still to be worked out. But the system worked correctly as school officials sent messages to parents’ cell phones to alert them to the incident and then with information about school dismissal and bus route changes, he said.

Mr. Carlton said, despite his half-joking comments, he likes the system.

The Walker County School System is just putting the $15,000 SchoolCast notification system into service, officials said.

The Web-based software allows administrators to send thousands of simultaneous messages to cell phones, land lines or computers. Initially it will be used only in emergency situations, such as the bomb threat.

Eventually, teachers and administrators plan to use it to notify parents of their child’s homework assignments or to let families know if school is canceled because of snow.

After Monday’s live drill, the overall reaction from parents, police, school board members and administrators was that the parent notification was helpful.

“It has been overwhelmingly positive,” Mr. Tipton said of public response to the new technology. “The negatives that we’ve heard are, ‘It’s charging me for the text message,’ and things like that.”

LaFayette Director of Public Safety Tommy Freeman said the bomb threat is still under investigation and is a serious crime. Police suspect a student was responsible, he said.

“Any kind of bomb threat, where it is written or verbally communicated or called in, is a felony in state of Georgia,” Mr. Freeman said.

But he said the notification system worked well.

Last year during similar incidents of threats at school, students used cell phones to text to their parents, and the result sometimes was disorder, officials said.

“This pretty much gets rid of the confusion,” Mr. Freeman said.

The school board unanimously approved the purchase of the SchoolCast system, and schools spokeswoman Elaine Womack said central office administrators were all for the technology.

Board member Jim Alonzo Smith said schools deal with the two most valuable assets taxpayers have — their money and their children. He thinks the system will benefit parents and students.

“It is safety,” he said. “If something is happening, if a campus has to be on lock down, we can let parents know immediately.”

Comments