RBR uses text messaging for emergency notice
Accessing new technology in wake of college shootings
BY LAYLI WHYTE
Correspondent

In the wake of the recent shootings at Virginia Tech University that resulted in the deaths of more than 30 people, Red Bank Regional High School is taking steps to help ensure the safety of its students and staff.

As of last Friday afternoon, nearly 200 people had already signed up for RBR's new text-messaging emergency-notification system, according to RBR Superintendent Dr. Edward Westervelt.

"Communication is one of the key factors in an emergency situation," Westervelt said Friday. "This system is in addition to the telephone messaging service we already have in place to get information to parents and staff members."

Westervelt said that the school's business administrator, Steven Terhune, contacted Mobile Media Technologies, Kansas City, Mo., to purchase the TextCaster software for the RBR alert system for an annual payment of $1,200.

"With so many kids having cell phones and other devices that receive text messages," said Westervelt, "this is just another way of letting students, parents and staff members know what's going on at the school."

Westervelt said that in addition to the fire drills that schools are required to hold, RBR has also been practicing lockdown situations.

"We've seen students, as soon as the lockdown happens, take out their cell phones and start texting each other," he said. "We've had situations where something would happen and before we could even make an announcement, the students already knew because they had been texting each other. I don't know how they do it so quickly."

Westervelt said that although students are not permitted to make or receive phone calls on their cell phones during classroom time, they seem to keep up communication nonetheless, but without disturbing the instruction.

"In an emergency situation," he said, "I expect them to turn their cell phones on right away."

Westervelt said that the system will likely be used, in addition to emergency situations, to announce early school closings, and registrants to the system can also opt to receive information on upcoming school events.

Concerning school closures due to weather, Westervelt said the system that the school currently has in place works fine, but he did not rule out the option of using that system in those cases as well.

In 2005, then-acting Gov. Richard Codey mandated that every school in the state implement a security checklist, which included procedures, protocol and communication specifications.

By the Labor Day 2005 deadline, Westervelt announced that RBR was completely compliant, and that many of the mandated items had been implemented before Codey's checklist came into effect.

Westervelt said that the state is no longer actively inspecting school security, but that the school's own 15-member School Safety Committee is always looking for new ways to keep students and staff safe.