Parkland victim's mother pushes for teacher panic buttons after Nashville school shooting
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — A mother who lost her daughter to the tragic Parkland school shooting in Florida is pushing to make panic buttons for teachers the new normal nationwide.
The panic buttons enable teachers to report an emergency to 911 with the click of a button.
The mobile panic button system is a concept that Lori Alhadeff, president of Make Our Schools Safe, emphasizes has already saved several lives.
Lori lost her 14-year-old daughter, Alyssa Alhadeff, to the Parkland school shooting in 2018.
She was shot eight times in her English classroom and it’s so painful that I live with that pain every single day,” Lori said.
Lori says she's turning her pain and grief into action by creating Alyssa's Law, which calls for all school teachers and faculty to have silent panic alarms that are directly linked to law enforcement.
Lori says it's passed in Florida, New Jersey, and New York and they have legislation in other states.
Geno Roefaro, CEO of SaferWatch, which is a mobile panic alert system, says on average they cut down response times by 35%.
We’ve been able to stop 12 school shootings all based on tips, so based on people who have had information and they’ve been able to report that information through safer watch," Roefaro said.
Roefaro says it is because they streamline the entire emergency response process.
"Our technology allows people to be able to communicate in real time as they are at that incident and be able to deliver information to first responders on the scene. That may include their location, that may include actual live videos."
Senator Mark Pody told FOX 17 News first lawmakers decided to postpone Governor Bill Lee's safety bill following Covenant School's tragic shooting Monday to implement better solutions like the panic button system.
“I think that those would be something that we should absolutely consider in Tennessee and have every single teacher have one and that would be an instant call,” Senator Pody said.
This will hopefully help prevent another parent like Lori Alhadeff from losing her innocent child to a school shooting.
It’s the most awful thing in the world,” Alhadeff emphasized.
Pain that no parent should have to go through.
Senator Pody says they are also working on adding more mental health resources, hiring more school resource officers, and initiating more safety checks, which he explains will all be added to Governor Lee's safety bill.
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