Brunswick Schools' safety committee looking into potentially using crisis badges in the district

BRUNSWICK — Brunswick Schools' safety committee is considering potentially implementing crisis badges in the district as a new safety initiative. Assistant Superintendent Kathy Verhest described the possible initiative during a safety update at the board of education meeting Wednesday. The safety committee consists of staff from Brunswick Schools, like administrators, teachers and counselors and first responders like police and fire chiefs and school resource officers, Verhest said. The committee meets three to four times a year. Crisis badges are plastic badges with a button on them that provides an alert in a time of need, she said. The number of times the button is pressed corresponds to a different type of alert. "If there's a behavioral incident, we can use these badges and alert the team within the building to the crisis or to the event," Verhest said. "Then, if the event is something that is on a larger scale in which we need to lock down, we can use these badges." When an alert is made, it goes to a team and the software platform, which determines what type of alert it is and where it was made, she said. The alert would go to certain people within the school and safety forces. "They will be alerted immediately, and they will get the same information that the team in building is receiving," Verhest said. "The communication range is within the entire campus of the building. There is camera integration so that the safety forces can log on to the cameras immediately and see what is happening in real time." No final decision has been made yet regarding the badges. "We have multiple companies that we are looking at right now," Verhest said. "We are working with our safety committee to decide if this is something that we want to move forward with." Contact reporter Madisyn Woodring at (330) 721-4049 or mwoodring@medina-gazette.com.