A mother of one of the Parkland victims is advocating for the worldwide implementation of new technology, which officials in Georgia say helped avert an even worse tragedy during this week’s high school shooting. Authorities claimed a panic button on a badge helped them rapidly respond to the shooting at Apalachee High School, where two students and two instructors were killed on Wednesday. Lori Alhadeff has been advocating for that exact technology to be made mandatory worldwide since her daughter, Alyssa, was killed in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. “Anytime I hear of a school shooting, it’s very triggering for me and my family,” he told NBC6 following the Georgia massacre.”It’s always so difficult and painful to hear that there’s another school shooting.”
Since Alyssa was killed in the Parkland shooting in 2018, Alhadeff has worked to keep her daughter’s memory alive by supporting the passage of “Alyssa’s Law,” which mandates panic button technology. So far, seven states, including Florida, have passed the legislation. Georgia legislation is still in the works, but at Alapachee High School, a teacher was able to swiftly send an alarm that there was a shooting by pressing a button on an ID badge.
“It helped to save lives because law enforcement was able to get to the shooter faster and take down the shooter,” according to Alhadeff.
“When we get Alyssa’s law passed in every state, we know that not only is Alyssa helping to keep other pupils safe, but we’re also remembering and honoring Alyssa with every push of that emergency button.”
Alhadeff, who also serves on the Broward County School Board, stated that all schools in the district use an app called “Alyssa’s Alert,” which functions as a panic button and sends real-time alerts. It is similar to the wearable IDs used in Georgia.
“You know, wearable, you’ll have 100 percent compliance on day one; it’s around the teacher’s neck, very accessible,” Alhadeff told me. “With the app-based emergency button, you could put information in there and then get data back on the app, for example, where the shooter is located, to have that knowledge and more efficient response.” Alhadeff and her colleagues seek to enact a federal “Alyssa’s Act” measure requiring all 50 states to implement the panic alert system. However, they are currently moving state by state.
