Ron Self and a colleague went to staff meetings at 45 campuses. They reintroduced the district’s app-based school alert system, walked employees through it again, and tried to make the rollout work. Staff still called 911 rather than opening the app when they needed help.
Ron Self, CENTEGIX’s Regional Director of Strategic Initiatives and former Director of Safety and Security for Little Rock School District, recounts that experience to CENTEGIX CMO Robb Monkman in Episode 9 of The Safety Signal. The conversation is less about declaring one technology universally right for every school than about a question Ron faced as a safety leader: What will staff actually use when an incident happens?
That question belongs alongside the coverage, location, notification, and training considerations in school alert system best practices. A system can have useful capabilities and still fall short of its purpose if the people it is meant to help do not reach for it.
Why Didn’t Staff Use the School Alert App?
Ron had encountered the same app-based tool at a smaller district before arriving at Little Rock. In both settings, he says employees tended to call 911 instead of using the app. At the smaller district, he also recalls limited buy-in because the technology and its implementation had been directed by the state rather than developed with the district.
At Little Rock, he did not assume another reminder would solve the problem. He and a colleague attended staff meetings across 45 campuses to retrain employees. Afterward, he says, staff still were not opening the app. Ron describes the friction of finding one app among many on a phone during an urgent situation. This is his account of those districts, not evidence that every app-based school emergency alert system will have the same result.
The distinction between installation and real-world use is central to staff adoption of safety technology. NIST’s research on facilitating the adoption of public safety communication technology provides a broader reason to study users and the context of use, rather than judging technology only by its specifications. Its usability handbook for public safety communications similarly addresses user needs and evaluation. Those resources concern public safety communications generally; Ron supplies the school district example.
What Did Ron Look for in a School Alert System Instead?
Ron’s superintendent, Mike Poor, asked him to investigate a wearable badge. Ron admits he dismissed the idea at first. Then he saw a way to let an employee call for assistance with an everyday incident as well as initiate a response to a major emergency.
“I was looking for something that schools would use every single day,” Ron says, “that they would also use in the case of emergency.” He describes the CrisisAlert™ wearable panic button as meeting that need through staff assistance alerts as well as campuswide alerts. He also recalls that employees were receptive to having a direct way to ask for help without first seeking permission from the office.
The badge is one part of the CENTEGIX Safety Platform®, which connects alerts with response workflows. For districts comparing a panic button with a broader emergency notification system, the relevant questions include what initiates an alert, how staff know it worked, who receives it, how responders learn the incident location, and what happens after activation. The way school safety devices communicate matters because an accessible button alone does not complete the response.
NIST’s guidance on human response to building emergency communications examines alert and warning methods, including visual and audible information. It reinforces the value of considering the message people receive after someone requests help, in addition to the action that starts the alert.
Why Did Everyday Emergencies Matter to Adoption?
Ron was evaluating a tool for medical incidents, student altercations, and staff requests for assistance, not only the scenario that might trigger a lockdown. The day-to-day need gave staff a practical reason to know where their alert tool was and how to use it. He describes helping employees adopt the badge as a markedly different experience from promoting the app, though his recollection should not be read as a controlled comparison.
Everyday use also changes what district leaders can learn. They can ask staff which incidents prompt a request for help, where the process slows down, and whether the right responders receive enough information. Testing procedures through school exercises can reveal gaps before a serious emergency. CISA’s security assessment resources encourage districts to consider their actual campus vulnerabilities within a layered approach.
Ron’s account also highlights why a district cannot treat rollout as the end of implementation. Onsite training and continued support can help staff learn the process, while observing what staff do in drills and everyday incidents can show where it needs to improve. The U.S. Department of Education’s school climate resources for supporting staff reinforce that staff support is part of a safe school environment.
What Should Districts Ask Before Choosing an Emergency Notification System?
Ron’s 45-campus experience suggests that district leaders should test an alert process with the people who will have to use it. Questions worth asking include:
- Can staff access the alert method while supervising students, outside a classroom, or away from a desk?
- Which everyday incidents should trigger an onsite request for help, and which require a broader emergency response?
- Who receives each type of alert, and what location and incident information do they receive?
- How will the district teach the process, practice it, and check whether employees actually use it?
- What support will the provider offer after launch when staffing, buildings, and protocols change?
Ron’s experience shows why districts need to evaluate how an alert system works in practice, from the moment an employee requests help through the response that follows. These questions build on school alert system implementation guidance and align with SchoolSafety.gov’s emergency planning resources and CISA’s guidance on planning for an emergency communications system’s full life cycle.
Ron also says districts want a long-term partner who answers the phone and helps solve problems after the sale. His earlier frustration with the app explains why that matters to him: a vendor’s promise has little value if staff are still reaching for another method when help is needed. Reducing delays in school safety technology begins with a process people will actually follow.
Ron did not set out to prove that every school should choose the same technology. He was trying to give his own employees a dependable way to ask for help. His experience offers district leaders a useful test of any school alert system: watch what staff do, listen when the process fails them, and improve the path from requesting help to receiving it.
Hear the complete discussion in Episode 9 of The Safety Signal, “Ron Self: The Student Who Changed His Mission in School Safety”.