{"id":19141,"date":"2025-10-27T22:48:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T22:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/19141\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T22:48:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T22:48:07","slug":"nyc-pilots-panic-button-and-direct-911-access-for-51-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/19141\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC pilots \u2018panic button\u2019 and direct 911 access for 51 schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York\u2019s free daily newsletter<\/a> to get essential news about NYC\u2019s public schools delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n

New York City public schools are piloting a new emergency alert system that gives direct and immediate access to 911 if an active shooter is present at their buildings, Mayor Eric Adams announced on Monday. <\/p>\n

\u201c[It] is capable of initiating a 911 response in under 10 seconds,\u201d said Adams, noting that the pilot is the nation\u2019s first of its kind initiative. <\/p>\n

The city plans to test the device at 51 public schools located in 25 school buildings across the five boroughs this academic year, Adams said. The schools will have multiple buttons affixed to certain locations as well as wireless lanyards that staffers can wear that can activate the emergency system. <\/p>\n

Adams showed off the new Emergency Alert System at Brooklyn\u2019s Spring Creek campus, holding it in his palm, the word \u201cPOLICE\u201d written in black and a red button with the word \u201cPUSH\u201d written in white. <\/p>\n

He and Alicia Arjune, a student at the Academy for Young Writers, pressed the red button together. Within a second an alarm rang. A screen behind the two then showed an alert was coming from Spring Creek Community School.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis panic button pilot will offer additional peace of mind to myself and my fellow students so we can spend our time in school figuring what our passions are and just being kids,\u201d Alicia said at the press conference. <\/p>\n

The device comes after the debut of SaferWatch,<\/a> an app designed by a Florida-based tech firm that has a \u201cpanic button,\u201d allowing school safety agents to respond quickly to emergencies, including shootings. (That app, piloted at five schools, faced scrutiny<\/a> after company officials enlisted the help of a consulting agency owned by the brother of then-schools Chancellor David Banks to expand its footprint in city schools.) <\/p>\n

The new system was developed in-house by the city\u2019s Office of Technology and Innovation along with the help of vendor SOS Technologies. <\/p>\n

In 2023, the city\u2019s technology office, along with the Emergency Management division, the Mayor\u2019s office, Education Department, and NYPD\u2019s School Safety Division began researching school-based panic buttons with a direct line to 911 during an active-shooter emergency. <\/p>\n

The current emergency alert relies on transferring calls through a remote system in another state before rerouting to the city. <\/p>\n

The pilot builds on the other safety measures implemented at schools, said schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis includes the Safer Access Program, which locks main entrances to our buildings, NYPD School Safety Agents in every school, and emergency protocols that keep our schools safe,\u201d she said in a statement. <\/p>\n

The number of School Safety Agents plummeted<\/a> from 5,050 in 2019 to 3,613 in 2024-25, according to data from the Independent Budget Office and the Education Department\u2019s<\/a> website. <\/p>\n

The new tool bypasses the 911 call flow, going straight to dispatch, and it can initiate a response from 911 quickly, Adam said at Monday\u2019s press conference. The schools will also have audible and visual indicators notifying everyone that 911 has been alerted and that the schools are on hard lockdown. NYPD School Safety and DOE officials will also get electronic notifications.<\/p>\n

Over 3,000 K-12 school shooting incidents occurred in the United States between 1966 and September 2025, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database<\/a> (The dataset includes all shootings happening on school property at any time of the day or week with intent to harm. This includes sports games, after-school events, and gang violences.) School shootings peaked at 351 in 2023, and the number of victims shot, both fatal and wounded, peaked at 276 in 2024. <\/p>\n

This month, a 17-year-old high school student<\/a> was found with a loaded pistol at East Brooklyn Community High School, according to police. <\/p>\n

Similarly in September, a 16-year-old Queens high school <\/a>student had a loaded gun in his backpack at Cardozo High School in Bayside. Police said the teen posted a threat on Instagram. <\/p>\n

At the press conference Monday, Adams noted his administration\u2019s efforts during his tenure to confiscate illegal guns from across the city. This year, the administration has removed over 4,100, according to the press release<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve already taken more than 24,097 illegal guns off our streets, and now we\u2019re making sure our classrooms have the strongest, fastest protection possible,\u201d Adams said. <\/p>\n

Ananya Chetia is a reporting intern at Chalkbeat. Contact Ananya at achetia@chalkbeat.org<\/a>. <\/p>\n

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Across all of our bureaus, Chalkbeat reporters interview educators with interesting, effective approaches to teaching students and leading their schools. Get the best of How I Teach sent to your inbox for free every month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for Chalkbeat New York\u2019s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC\u2019s public schools delivered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4146,13159,13158,9,13160,56,63,65,64],"class_list":{"0":"post-19141","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-chalkbeat","9":"tag-flicker","10":"tag-mayors-office","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city-mayor-eric-adams-and-new-york-city-chief-technology-officer-cto-matthew-fraser","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-nyc-headlines","16":"tag-nyc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}