BELLINGHAM, Wash. –A Washington state area school district recently approved a plan that would send for the authorities in an emergency without calling 911.

Thanks to a little monetary help from Washington state, the Bellingham School District will implement a panic button system that will notify local law enforcement in case of an emergency to the tune of $440,000.

The buttons would be placed strategically throughout each school building in order to provide a direct connection to law enforcement instead of routing calls through a third party system, according to Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations Ron Cowan.

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Cowan said that the school district won a grant from the State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and worked with local law enforcement to obtain the grant.

“The grant planning team was key in helping secure these funds. We worked with the Bellingham Police Department, Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office, What-Comm 911 Communications Center and Educational Service District (ESD) 112 to secure these funds that will help us improve our safety and security measures related to our students and staff,” Cowan said in a press release.

Cowan said it would have been unlikely for BPS to secure funding from the state if it were not for a ballot initiative that passed in November which called for a $160 million bond.

The bond passed with a voter approval rating of 64 percent and raised the tax rate from 90 cents per $1,000 last year to its current rate of $1.39 per $1,000.  It included funding for safety and security improvements at all schools in the area.

“The state grant required a financial match, which would have been very difficult to meet without our bond dollars. A big thank you is in order to our community for their continuing support of our schools,” Cowan said.

Bellingham is one of 80 districts that received a total of $7 million in grants from the state agency as a way to reduce local law enforcement response time in school emergencies.  BPS’ received the third largest grant from the state.

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Other states across the country have also implemented panic buttons as a way to streamline emergency services with hefty and not-so-hefty price tags.

In Apache Junction, AZ, the school board voted to install panic buttons in six schools and two administrative buildings.  The total cost was $2,000 to install and $4,000 a year in operation expenses.

In Maine, 52 school districts in Maine received a $400,000 grant from the state to install panic buttons and auto-lock systems.

Twenty-six of those schools received a $1,500 stipend from the state’s Department of Homeland Security for panic buttons, according to Bruce Fitzgerald, deputy director of the Maine Emergency Management Agency.

BPS also plans to use the grant and the bond money to implement video camera systems, lighting and locking systems and intrusion detection systems.

The district plans to install the panic buttons and other advanced security measures as soon as next school year.

Authored by Katherine Rodriguez