MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Wearable panic buttons were on the agenda for the Miami-Dade County School Board Wednesday.
Mary Blanco, a school board member, proposed allowing Jose L. Dotres, the superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, to “explore” the “feasibility of a wearable panic button for school staff to enhance our current mobile alert system.”
If the proposal passes, Dotres will need to report back to the school board on March 12. Blanco said the button would be on the ID badge hanging by a lanyard.
“Right now is a system that’s on the phone,” Blanco said.
The discussion comes ahead of the seventh anniversary of the 2018 Valentine’s Day massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland.
About four years ago, Florida adopted a law requiring public schools to install a silent panic alarm system linked to law enforcement.
Lawmakers named the law after Alyssa Alhadeff, a 14-year-old freshman who died after a former student shot her with a rifle eight times while she was in classroom 1216.
Alyssa’s mother, Lori Alhadeff, a Broward County School Board member, founded Make Our Schools Safe, a nonprofit advocating to pass the law nationwide.