Parents call for more than panic buttons in schools

“Alyssa’s Law,” named for a Parkland School shooting victim, now requires all Oklahoma schools to invest in safety and security.

However, one Oklahoma City parent says this should just be the first step.

Over 5,000 cameras across the district are monitored 24 hours a day.

Oklahoma City Public Schools (OKCPS) has more security technology than some small towns in the state.

Wayland Cubit, director of security for OKCPS said, “We use those camera systems and all of the technology to help us predict and prevent crime, identify locked doors, and help notify us if a danger does exist that other people may not be aware of.”

All Oklahoma schools are now required by law to provide emergency responders with building blueprints and access to security cameras in case an emergency happens.

But OKCPS was already doing this.

Schools are also required to install an emergency panic button either in classrooms or through an app. During an emergency, teachers and staff can send an alert to the district’s operation center.

From this center they can see every camera across the district. Each honeycomb is a different camera. They can bring up any camera using that capture motion technology to see what’s going on in real time.

Those cameras capture moments, like when Oklahoma City Police officers caught a suspect in a school parking lot.

Strangers on campus and school shootings are something OKCPS parents like Carrie Coppernoll Jacobs says she and her children worry about.

“That’s not something that you want your kid to have to think about, but it’s a reality,” Coppernoll Jacobs said.

She has a fourth grader at Kaiser Elementary.

Although she thanks lawmakers for requiring new safety measures for children, she says much more than an emergency button is needed.

“Something like an app is great, but at the end of the day it’s a band-aid, and band-aids don’t fix bullet holes,” Coppernoll Jacobs said.

For OKCPS, the app is just one line of defense, but that’s not the case for every district.

“There are a lot of school districts, especially rural school districts, that can’t afford new roofs, HVAC systems, basic stuff,” Coppernoll Jacobs said. “There’s not extra money for things like safety vestibules and secured entrances, and I think that’s something the legislature should work on. So I am hoping that the legislature will continue looking at this and not say, ‘hey, here’s an app and we’re done.’”

Schools can qualify for school resource officer grants, and OKCPS staff say after speaking with other districts, many are making similar investments in safety.

“A lot of them have done these panic buttons and protocols and mapping,” Cubit said. “So, I think the legislature is catching up with school safety professionals in this case.”

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