Southwestern High School hosts ribbon-cutting for revolutionary security system

"Today, this school, Southwestern High School, has a level of security not found in any other school in America. The security features in this school are considered by the Indiana Sheriffs Association as a best practiced solution for school safety," ISA Executive Director Steve Luce said. "It has taken 15 years for such a solution to evolve, and can certainly be the legacy for the children and the teachers who were so tragically lost, wounded and affected forever (in previous active shooter events)."

Luce and Southwestern Superintendent Dr. Paula Maurer unveiled a commemorative plaque listing the names of the deceased and wounded faculty and students from Columbine High School, Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook Elementary.

"These three active shooter incidents are the there most egregious acts in our education system, with respect to the numbers of the lost and wounded. These children and teachers should have been safe, but they were not," Luce said. "Their survivors, mothers, fathers, siblings and spouses are heartbroken forever. The best practice solution for school safety (at) Southwestern High School is dedicated to the memory of those who (were) lost and wounded at Columbine, Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook."

"Southwestern High School is the first school in U.S. history connected to law enforcement for incident response," Luce said. "It is the first school to be equipped with a total security solution for protecting victims, providing real-time actual intelligence to law enforcement, while giving law enforcement a remote counter-measure capability that can disrupt the shooter's attack."

Luce showed a video, in which an active shooter begins attacking a fictional school that has the new security system and protocols in place. Between the video clips of the armed intruder attempting to attack the school and the law-enforcement reacting to the shooter, Kersey explained what the crowd had just watched.

One of the measures revealed in the video included reinforced doors on all the classrooms and offices to protect those involved from a breach. It is estimated doors not reinforced can be breached within five seconds.

The video also showed the alarm that signals the students and faculty of an attack, and how law enforcement immediately gets alerted of the attack.

According to Kersey, in typical active shooter attacks, law enforcement are not notified until three to four minutes into the attack. With the new system, the notification is immediate, and gives the police full access to the school's cameras.

Once the alarms sounded, the video depicted the students rushing into the classrooms and securing themselves with desks and books in a designated spot within the classroom, safe from the attacker's view and shots.

Kersey explained in the footage, after the students are in the room, the teacher uses the new system to signal whether the classroom is safe or under attack. Classrooms being shot at were referred to as hot zones, and special diversionary tactics are put into action to redirect the shooter's movements.

While this is going on, the law enforcement agency dispatches units to the school. They are provided up-to-date information on the school and attack so strategic planning can begin.

The attack in the video ended between the seven- and eight-minute mark, with the aggressor being apprehended outside of the building. The video then explained in an attack on a school without the new system and protocols, law enforcement would still be on their way to the school.