New Jersey District Installing Silent Panic Alarms in Schools

New Jersey District Installing Silent Panic Alarms in Schools

The School District of the Chathams will be implementing silent panic alarms in all schools by September, as mandated by New Jersey State law.

  • By Jessica Davis
  • May 03, 2019

The School District of the Chathams will be implementing silent panic alarms in all schools by September as mandated by New Jersey State law, Superintendent Michael LaSusa said.

In February, Governor Phil Murphy signed “Alyssa’s Law,” named after one of the 17 people killed in the Parkland shooting in February 2018. Alyssa’s Law requires all New Jersey public schools to install silent panic alarms. In emergencies, the alarms will alert law enforcement.

At Monday’s Board of Education meeting, LaSusa said he had been meeting with vendors to decide what kind of silent panic alarm the district will use and discussed some of the options he’s seen.

"One the benefits and the goal of this system and it bypasses, entirely, the dispatch," LaSusa said. "So you hit the button and whether you're wearing the button or the button is on the wall and the signal goes to a preprogrammed list of folks including the Township or in our case the Borough Police Department without having to go through the county dispatch. And so they say the communication will be much, much faster than it would be otherwise. "

LaSusa noted that the board will have to discuss in greater detail the kind of alarms and how they are distributed.

"Just like you have AEDs sprinkled around the building and fire alarm pulls, one vendor put something right over the fire alarm pull that will go to the local Fire Department, Police Department or EMS," LaSusa said. "So there is a just a greater saturation of points where someone can hit the button and get a response."

About the Author

Jessica Davis is the Associate Content Editor for 1105 Media.

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