Opportunity

Blount County School District was looking for a solution to use in the event of an active shooter in order to enhance their safety plans. However, the county required a solution that would be customizable to meet each school site’s specific needs, as well as work with the new camera system they had just invested in to enhance security and monitoring.

Solution

Blount County Schools implemented SARA, a situational awareness and alerting solution, to provide enhanced mobile duress throughout their school buildings, district wide. SARA not only meets Blount County’s desire for an active shooter solution, but goes far beyond that single need. Regarding why Blount County chose SARA, Don Stallions, Blount County’s Director of General Services, expressed, “Where SARA stood out above everybody else was its adaptability and its ability to integrate into just about anything.” SARA’s customizable solution gives schools the ability to create a holistic safety solution that is tailored to their unique needs.

When implemented, SARA was able to integrate directly with Blount County’s brand-new camera system. With the integrated camera system, SARA leverages video paging to pull live-video feed that is then attached to detailed alerts. Blount County provided specific school staff members with mobile duress buttons to be utilized in the event of an emergency. When one of the mobile duress buttons is triggered, an alert is immediately sent out to the proper personnel and/or first responders with critical information, via desktop alerts, including live video feed from the cameras closest to the triggered device and the location of the device triggered. This ensures quick and correct action is taken to manage any situation. Stallions stated, “Once an alarm is sent, having our dispatch to be able to immediately look at that live camera feed and see what’s going on, we really feel that’s going to save lives.”

Results

• Unification of all county schools
• Each school is able to customize their solution to accomplish their unique goals
• Blount County Schools have a direct connection with the police and other first responders to enhance school safety
• First responders are now armed with detailed information to be able to appropriately respond to an unfolding situation
• SARA provides Blount County with a scalable solution to meet their current and future needs

About Blount County Schools

Blount County Schools is a school district in Blount County, Tennessee. The district has 18 schools with with 750 teachers/administration serving around 11,000 students. 

Their goal is to provide the very best educational opportunities and experiences for their students. They work every day to focus on the development of each and every student.  In an atmosphere of mutual respect and high expectations, they empower their students by teaching the skills and knowledge they need to be lifelong learners and productive citizens.