Page 111 - Security Today, July/August 2022

By Dean Olds
"Empowering staff to get help when they need it—whether for a behavior situation, medical issue, physical altercation or a campus-wide threat—is key to enabling staff to feel safe and protected."
How to Select the Right Emergency Notification System for Your Campus
Five Characteristics of an Effective School Notification and Communication Solution
The daily news regularly reminds us that safety incidents have risen dra- matically across all aspects of our community, and that’s one reason that recruitment and retention of teachers has been a challenge. Headlines tell us that teachers are being attacked or threatened at school—by both students and parents—and leaving after one year of service or retiring early.
While the news often focuses on the extreme safety incidents in schools—such as active shooters, neighborhood threats, and others—CENTEGIX’s experience providing incident response for schools tells us that everyday safety incidents like medical and behavioral situations are rising dramatically. In our Fall 2021 School Safety Trends Report, we provided an analysis of the trends in the data from our CrisisAlert platform, which
Victoria Denisova/Shutterstock.com
was used over 25,000 times in the fall of 2021. We saw dramatic year-over-year increases in student behavior incidents (up 250%); medical incidents (up 130%); safety incidents per school increased 150%; the number of staff requesting help increased 100%; and staff called for help 22% more often.
Empowering staff to get help when they need it—whether for a behavior situation,
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Emergency Notification