COLUMBUS, Ohio — So far this year, 46 people are dead and more than 100 people wounded from shootings on school grounds, according to the nonprofit Everytown for Gun Safety.
Those numbers include the four people killed and nine others injured last month at Apalachee High School in Georgia.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said law enforcement officers arrived on campus within minutes of the first shots fired at the school, after receiving a notification about the emergency from teachers pressing an alert button on their ID badges. The school had only been using the system a week when the shooting occurred, investigators said.
Investigators said those alert buttons helped first responders quickly stop the threat and prevented more people from being injured or worse.
A new law filed at the Statehouse would put wearable alarms on every teacher and staff member of Ohio public and charter schools.
Its technology Canal Winchester Local Schools has already been researching to use on its campuses.
“It’s important to make sure our students and our staff feel safe,” said Canal Winchester Local Schools Director of Student Services Max Lallathin. “Because if the students are safe in their educational area, then they’re going to be able to learn.”
Keeping each of the nearly 3,700 students enrolled in the district safe is Lallathin’s top priority. He said he’s constantly looking at ways to improve school security, including wearable panic alarms.
“A medical emergency and letting them know where your location is, or if you hit the button or whatever the device it is multiple times, it will give you the opportunity then to have that conversation and/or alert building leadership, district leadership, and potentially first responders,” Lallathin said.
State Sen. Michele Reynolds, R-Canal Winchester, filed legislation in the Ohio Statehouse that would require all public and charter school faculty and staff to wear similar devices. It’s called, "Alyssa’s Law.”
Reynolds said the measure would cost the state about $25 million to put in place and would go into effect for the 2025-2026 school year, if passed.
Seven states already passed versions of Alyssa’s Law.
“Every time this panic button is pushed, I know that Alyssa is saving lives,” said Lori Alhadeff, chief executive officer of the nonprofit Make Our Schools Safe.
Alhadeff’s daughter, Alyssa, was one of 17 victims killed in Feb. 2018 at a shooting at a Parkland, Florida, high school. Now keeping her memory alive while hoping to save lives and make students across the country safer, by silently connecting teachers directly to law enforcement through pressing wearable panic buttons.
“I just keep Alyssa, she’s empowered, embodied with inside me, to keep moving forward and keep trying to make our schools safe,” Alhadeff said.