Lexington County School District Three announces another layer of protection in its comprehensive plans to keep students and staff safe while in school.
Recently, the district entered into contract with Guard911, a company that was formed in 2013 by law enforcement and technology experts who had a wealth of experience and a deep psychological understanding of active shooter situations. Guard911 has created an easy-to-use mobile phone app called SchoolGuard that’s now downloaded on Lexington Three staff members’ mobile devices and tablets. The app is designed to contact 911 dispatchers at the push of a button should an active shooter or armed intrusion situation occur. In addition to calling 911, the app also notifies the Hero911 Network that is composed of more than 60,000 federal, state and local first responders that a shooting or armed intrusion has occurred at a specific location, enabling the nearest law enforcement officer to get to the scene as quickly as possible. The app also notifies other staff members on campus that an emergency situation is occurring, thus giving them more time to begin following their school’s emergency response plan. Ultimately, the goal of the app is to save lives by improving and shortening notification and response times in dire emergency situations. Lexington Three is the first school district in South Carolina to implement this mobile phone app.
“Protecting our Panthers and providing a safe learning environment is at the heart of what we do every single day in Lexington County School District Three. We are constantly evaluating our emergency plans to ensure that our schools are operating at their safest levels and we feel that the addition of the SchoolGuard mobile phone app is an extra layer of protection and security that we pray we never have to use,” said Todd Bedenbaugh, Lexington Three’s Director of School Security.
Lexington Three works very closely with the Batesburg-Leesville Police Department regarding all of its emergency plans and the department is fully supportive of the addition of this mobile phone app to the district’s safety programs.