MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. — A Moon Township Christian school is the first to receive a brand-new security system designed by a local company.
“We always say we want to be prepared, not paranoid,” said Dr. Claudia Bavaro, Principal at Rhema Christian School. “So that’s what we are doing, we are being very proactive.”Channel 11 visited the private school on Friday, as Martin Communications was in the process of installing the system. Panic buttons are being placed in various undisclosed locations throughout the school.
The buttons are accessible to staff members and trigger an automatic notification to local law enforcement.
“The police are notified within seconds, not minutes, within seconds,” said company President Don Martin. “They know exactly the level of building that it’s coming from, the room, so it’s instantaneous pretty much, so they know exactly where to go.”
It’s technology that public schools in Pennsylvania could soon be required to consider. Lawmakers are weighing “Alyssa’s Law,” named for a victim of the Parkland school shooting.
Bavaro said they’re proud to be ahead of the curve in terms of implementation.
“When we do tours, when we have families that are interested in coming to Rhema Christian School, one of the first questions they ask is ‘What’s your security like here?’ And I can honestly say, ‘We are always up to date.’”
Next Week, Martin will be installing the counterpart technology at Moon Township’s police station. He suspects the system to be fully up and running by the middle of next week.
Martin told Channel 11 that he wanted to gift the system to Rhema.
“We have a Pittsburgh mindset, let’s protect our own first, and we’re hoping and praying...we want to get this to every school in the nation, this is so important to us,” he said.
He is in talks with other districts, and wants the product to be affordable, offering it for less than $20,000.
The system also includes compatible AI technology for a building’s camera systems. The technology can detect threats via interior and exterior footage, he told us.
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