New School Security System May Have Saved Lives

As of about a week ago, teachers at Apalachee High School wear an ID badge on a lanyard with a panic button that alerts police. When the shooting began at the Georgia school on Wednesday, one staff member appeared to activate the alarm, leading to a quick police response. Law enforcement officials said the security measure had just been installed, the New York Times reports. Two teachers and two students were killed in the attack, and at least nine people were injured. The new safety measures "prevented this from being a much larger tragedy," the head of the Georgia Bureau of Investigations said.

Centegix, which makes the badges, said they also can prompt a lockdown. The alert system doesn't use the school's Wi-Fi network. Centegix also is among the providers of systems in Florida, which requires schools to have a silent alarm connected to law enforcement agencies, per WABE. Stephen Kreyenbuhl, 26, was teaching in a classroom around the corner from where the shooting took place. When gunfire began, he said, a lockdown alert flashed on a screen in his room indicating that an ID alarm had been activated. Kreyenbuhl said the attacker then was locked out of his classroom. A school resource officer arrived in "probably under 120 seconds." (Local governments have installed similar systems for election workers.)