When Brecksville-Broadview Heights City Schools first issued CrisisAlert badges, teachers, administrators, custodians, and other building employees received them. Bus drivers did not, at least not immediately.
Superintendent Jeffrey D. Harrison explained why that quickly changed in Episode 8 of The Safety Signal, “Jeffrey Harrison, Ohio Superintendent, on Why Safety Can’t Wait”.
The district’s drivers understood that the badges would work while they were on campus, even though they would not provide coverage along their bus routes. Before and after school, approximately 45 drivers sat in buses in campus parking lots, where they could observe arrival, dismissal, and activity around school buildings.
“Our bus drivers were clamoring to make sure that they got theirs,” Harrison told CENTEGIX CMO Robb Monkman. They believed they had a duty to help protect students and employees while on campus and wanted the same ability to call for assistance.
Their response captures the larger value of a wearable panic button: It gives the person who sees or experiences an emergency an immediate way to act, regardless of job title.
Why Should Every School Employee Be Able to Request Help?
Before the district implemented CENTEGIX, Harrison said, some employees did not feel they had a defined role in school safety. Responsibility appeared to rest mainly with principals, teachers, and perhaps custodial employees.
“But now every single employee in our district, no matter what their role, plays a role in school safety,” Harrison said. “And they feel it and they know it.”
That shift matters because incidents do not occur only in classrooms or only in front of administrators. Employees work in cafeterias, offices, hallways, athletic facilities, playgrounds, parking areas, and other spaces across campus. A staff member may be the first person to see a student injury, medical emergency, altercation, elopement, or suspicious activity.
The CISA K-12 School Security Guide recommends a layered approach based on each school’s risks and physical environment. The federal emergency operations planning guide also stresses that plans should define the responsibilities of the people who will carry them out. Giving employees a direct reporting method turns those assigned roles into an accessible action.
A wearable device addresses a basic limitation of fixed or phone-based options: The alert mechanism stays with the employee. Harrison described the CENTEGIX CrisisAlert wearable panic button as “so simple and easy to call in the reinforcements when you need them.” Staff members can request onsite assistance for an everyday incident or initiate a campus-wide response for an extreme emergency, depending on the alert they activate.
How Does a Wearable Panic Button Support Rapid Incident Response?
Pressing a panic button is only the first step. An effective school alert system must transmit the alert reliably, identify where it originated, notify the appropriate responders, and support the district’s established protocols.
The Department of Justice’s review of the Robb Elementary School response documented how communication, coordination, and incident-command failures can compound during an emergency. A request for help must therefore produce actionable information, not another search for details.
With the CENTEGIX Safety Platform, a Staff Alert notifies designated onsite responders and displays the badge user’s room- and floor-level location. A Campus-wide Alert can initiate broader notifications aligned with the district’s emergency protocol. The platform operates through private, managed networks rather than depending solely on the user’s Wi-Fi or cellular connection.
That system-level design is why the way school safety devices communicate matters. Wireless panic button systems should be evaluated for coverage, redundancy, location accuracy, notification pathways, device monitoring, and the actions that follow an alert, not simply the presence of a button.
The need for multiple notification methods is equally important. FEMA supports distributing emergency alerts through multiple pathways because people may miss any single channel. In a school, employees and students may be outdoors, in a loud cafeteria, away from a computer, or unable to hear an intercom announcement. Audio, visual, and digital notifications can reduce the chance that someone remains unaware of a campus-wide emergency.
Why Does Simplicity Affect Staff Adoption?
An emergency places people under stress and time pressure. The alert process must be familiar enough that an employee can act without searching for a phone, remembering a number, navigating an app, or locating a wall-mounted device.
Harrison saw simplicity translate into acceptance. He has implemented CENTEGIX in two different districts, and employees in both embraced the system.
“The adoption and the belief in the system from the staff is what sold it to me,” he said. That response “proved to me that this was an investment worth making.”
Adoption is an operational measure, not merely an implementation milestone. If employees leave badges behind, avoid downloading an app, or feel uncertain about when to activate an alert, the school emergency alert system cannot perform as intended. Hands-on training, clear protocols, and regular reinforcement help turn a device into a routine part of employee safety.
Districts evaluating an emergency notification system should therefore ask how the vendor will support deployment, training, and long-term use. The CENTEGIX approach to total staff adoption includes onsite training aligned with the organization’s facilities and response procedures. A straightforward managed implementation process can also reduce the burden on district personnel responsible for launching and maintaining the system.
How Do Wearable Panic Buttons Support Everyday Emergencies?
Harrison cautions against evaluating a panic button only through the lens of an active-assailant event. With 3,600 students and 500 staff members moving through the district each day, employees regularly encounter incidents that require immediate support.
“It’s not only just an active shooter or threat situation,” he said. “It’s our day-to-day that we’ve always handled in a school.”
The National Center for Education Statistics reports that schools manage many kinds of safety and disciplinary incidents, while the Ohio School Safety Center’s emergency quick-reference guidance includes responses to seizures, bleeding, shock, burns, and other medical situations alongside security protocols.
Harrison gave similar examples from daily school operations: a playground injury, a broken arm, a seizure, an asthma attack, or a fall. In these moments, the employee closest to the incident needs a simple way to request the right assistance without leaving the person who needs help.
That is where immediate activation and precise location can compress identification, notification, and response time. The same process also gives staff regular experience using the system, which reinforces confidence before a more serious event occurs.
How Can a Wearable Panic Button Strengthen a Culture of Safety?
The bus drivers’ response reveals something that usage statistics alone cannot show: They wanted to participate. Receiving a badge communicated that their observations and judgment mattered to the district’s safety plan.
A culture of safety develops when employees understand their responsibilities, have the tools to fulfill them, and trust that others will respond. Technology cannot create that culture by itself. It can remove barriers that previously made employees feel unable to help.
That distinction aligns with SchoolSafety.gov’s collaborative approach to emergency planning, which calls for schools to work with employees, emergency managers, first responders, and community partners. Everyone does not perform the same role, but everyone should understand how their actions connect to the larger response.
The same principle applies when districts review laws such as Alyssa’s Law and wearable panic button requirements. Compliance establishes a baseline. A strong implementation goes further by making the alert process accessible, building employee confidence, connecting alerts with practiced protocols, and monitoring whether the system works throughout the campus.
For Harrison, the result is both practical and cultural. Every employee now has a role in school safety, and employees recognize that role themselves. That is what turns a wearable panic button from an issued device into employee safety technology that supports rapid incident response across the district.
Hear the complete bus-driver story and Harrison’s discussion of everyday incidents, staff adoption, and district leadership in Episode 8 of The Safety Signal, “Jeffrey Harrison, Ohio Superintendent, on Why Safety Can’t Wait.”
Frequently Asked Questions About Wearable Panic Buttons in Schools
What is a wearable panic button for schools?
A wearable panic button is a portable device that allows an employee to request assistance without traveling to a fixed button or retrieving and navigating a phone. The broader school alert system may transmit the alert, identify its location, notify designated responders, and activate campus-wide emergency communications.
Who should receive a wearable panic button in a school district?
Districts should base distribution on their risks, staffing model, facilities, and emergency procedures. Broad employee access can include teachers, administrators, office staff, custodians, food-service employees, coaches, and transportation personnel while they are within the system’s verified coverage area.
How is a wearable panic button different from an emergency notification system?
The wearable panic button initiates an alert. An emergency notification system includes the technology and procedures that transmit the alert, identify who needs help and where, notify responders, communicate instructions, and support the resulting response.
Do wireless panic button systems depend on Wi-Fi or cellular service?
Some do, while others use a dedicated network. Districts should verify the proposed system’s connectivity, campus coverage, backup pathways, location accuracy, and monitoring rather than assume that all wireless panic button systems operate the same way.
Can wearable panic buttons be used for everyday school emergencies?
Yes. Depending on the system and district protocols, staff may use a wearable panic button to request help for medical emergencies, injuries, behavioral incidents, fights, elopement, or other situations requiring onsite assistance. Separate activation patterns may be used for staff-level assistance and campus-wide emergencies.