One Fairplay high school will be the state’s first to install a one-button threat alert system in the event of an active shooter. South Park High School at 640 Hathaway St. is set to utilize the ASR Threat Alert System after ASR Alert Systems, a Florida company that provides critical incident response technology, partnered with Convergint, a security system integrator with a Centennial office, to donate it.
The technology issues immediate emergency notifications to staff and students after pressing a button, and connects directly with police dispatch, sidestepping 911 and third-party call centers. It also provides the incident’s physical address and room number with a mapping overview, “which significantly reduces response times during an emergency,” according to ASR Alert Systems.
“I’ve been shot at quite a few times in Iraq. It’s not fun; you’re going to lose all fine motor skills,” said Hector Delgado, CEO of ASR Alert Systems and a retired U.S. Navy SEAL, in a telephone interview. “It’s important to understand that hitting a button is very quick, and it provides that immediate notification.”
The donation comes as the country is plagued with a gun violence problem. So far, in 2022, 247 mass shootings have occurred, according to data by the Gun Violence Archive. Education Week, which tracks school shooting incidents, recorded 27 this year, with 83 people killed or injured.
Both the U.S. and the world were recently rocked by the May 24 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, which left 19 children and two teachers killed.
Delgado’s daughter, who’s now 18 years old, didn’t want to go to school on the anniversary of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Fla., which resulted in the deaths of 17 people in 2018. He called that moment “the tipping point” that encouraged him to develop a solution.
The system was given to South Park High School as part of Convergint’s STEP Up for Schools initiative, which it established in 2018 to improve school security in underserved schools. More than 40 schools have received free interior and exterior security system installations, upgrades and assessments through the program, according to the website.
“The safety of our country’s children when heading off to school each morning is of deep concern to our colleagues at Convergint,” said Tony Varco, vice president of security, in a statement. “We urge schools and parents to do all they can to assure that their buildings are as secure as possible.”
