Small towns are often tight-knit communities with solid histories, and their school systems hold unique positions as community hubs. In 2020, around 46 million people, or 14% of the US population, reported living in rural areas.
Due to geographic isolation, limited resources, and smaller student populations, these small-town schools face unique challenges in keeping schools safe for students and staff. To address these challenges, incorporating the right safety solutions is essential.
Innovative school alert systems featuring wearable panic buttons benefit rural campuses of all levels, from K-12 to higher education. Wearable panic buttons provide a rapid and reliable means of communication during emergencies and everyday incidents, empowering school staff to get help when needed and first responders with the information they need. They can help you foster a sense of safety and trust within your rural community. Here’s how.
Safety Considerations for Rural Schools
Safety concerns for rural schools often differ from urban campus challenges, and many of these issues are out of the control of school officials. School administrators should consider how innovative technology can reduce risk in these situations.
Connectivity Concerns
Rural communities often have well-known cellular dead zones that impact daily life, whether this is due to the distance of communities to cell towers or too many individuals trying to use the same tower at once. Additionally, just like urban school districts, many rural school districts have older buildings that can block existing cell signals, making it harder to request help in areas like basements and staircases.
Safety technology that relies on Wi-Fi or cellular signals will not be as effective for rural school systems. Administrators should consider innovative school alert systems that use private LoRaWAN or Bluetooth networks that are designed for optimizing communication and are unaffected by unreliable reception. This way, staff can always request help when needed and don’t have to worry about connectivity during an emergency.
Geographical Isolation
The often isolated nature of rural schools poses extra challenges in maintaining student safety.
In many cases, the distance between a rural campus and the nearest law enforcement agency can be significant, prolonging response times for emergency services like fire rescue or ambulances.
Despite the distance, school administrators can adopt technology that ensures responders make the best use of their time on the way to the emergency. Innovative safety technology that enhances situational awareness enables responders to tailor their response while en route to the scene, facilitating a faster and more accurate response. Technology such as real-time video integration or digital maps with safety assets can allow dispatchers to coordinate with responders, reducing response times despite the distance.
Campus Layout
The layout and size of rural schools can also influence safety considerations, especially on campuses with multiple buildings. For example, a rural college campus like West Georgia Technical College may span many buildings over several acres, presenting challenges in effectively monitoring and patrolling all areas or locating campus visitors. Large campuses with dispersed buildings also increase the number of access points for someone wanting to enter your campus.
Rural school administrators can establish visitor management policies and incorporate innovative technology to screen every visitor, every time. The best technology also offers locating capabilities to monitor the location of all visitors, volunteers, or contractors on campus in real time.
Wearable Panic Buttons Put Immediate Notification at Your Fingertips
Innovative technology, like the CENTEGIX Safety Platform™, equips rural school staff with critical incident mapping, a visitor management system, and an easy and reliable way to request help during emergencies.
Wearable panic buttons, like CENTEGIX CrisisAlert™, facilitate:
- Immediate notification of emergencies. When the button is activated, an alert is instantly sent to the school’s responder team. This notification allows for a rapid response to emergencies, whether the emergency involves student behavior, a medical crisis, or other possible threats to campus safety.
- Comprehensive campus coverage. Emergencies can happen anywhere, from the farthest corner of the football field to the most central classroom. Alerts can be initiated from anywhere on campus, indoors or outdoors, and do not rely on Wi-Fi or cellular signal.
- Rapid response from the right people. Badges that feature two types of alerts empower staff to get the right help at the right time. Staff alerts empower local responder teams to address incidents within the campus. Campus-wide alerts automatically notify first responders and law enforcement, requesting help more rapidly than a phone call.
- Improved overall sense of safety. Teachers and staff benefit from having a reliable way to summon help. Wearable panic buttons provide the peace of mind that assistance is never too far away, contributing to a campus culture of safety.
In rural areas, the ability to communicate quickly and effectively is essential. With the Safety Platform, teachers and staff can initiate immediate alerts, activate emergency audio-visual notifications, and trigger law enforcement responses, no matter where they are on campus.
How Rudyard Area Schools Improved Campus Safety with Wearable Panic Buttons
Rudyard Area Schools is located in a remote area of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, serving a small student population and challenged by geographic isolation and limited resources. When solving for the distance from local law enforcement and the necessity of sharing a Safety Resource Officer (SRO), Rudyard Area Schools administration implemented CENTEGIX CrisisAlert.
Rudyard Area Schools found that the ease of use and a strategic response team empowered teachers and staff to use the wearable panic buttons on a near-daily basis. “If a 4th grade kid is having a meltdown in his classroom and all six of the football coaches show up, that meltdown usually ends,” said the superintendent Thomas McKee. “It’s brought a lot of the everyday anxiety down for our staff and students alike.” The badge empowers teachers to protect their classrooms from interference and disruption. Instructors can report elopements as soon as they’re spotted, instead of waiting for a text to reach an admin or the school nurse.
In addition, the CENTEGIX Safety Platform provides Rudyard Area Schools with detailed incident reporting, facilitating data-driven decisions about resource allocation and additional staff training. On a rural campus spread out across a large building, efficient use of resources makes a difference in the everyday operations of the school, like providing evidence when requesting a dedicated SRO. If many instances of student misconduct occur in a particular hallway or classroom, administration can identify where to add additional camera coverage or staff patrols, better applying the resources they have to the school environment.
The CENTEGIX Safety Platform is an essential component of Rudyard Area Schools’ overall safety infrastructure. Combined with safety training, CENTEGIX has helped significantly improve emergency communication and response times. With the tools in hand to take control of their own safety, the Rudyard Area Schools community can handle everyday emergencies and extreme incidents with confidence.
Make The Most Of Your Resources With CENTEGIX
Investing in safety measures is essential for fostering a positive and supportive school culture. Implementing a solution that prioritizes the well-being of students, teachers, and staff is one way rural schools can create a safe and welcoming space where all individuals feel valued and protected.
Improve the safety of your institution by implementing the CENTEGIX Safety Platform featuring CrisisAlert. Indoors or outdoors, across every corner of campus, rural districts can better protect their students and staff with rapid response when it’s needed most.
