OLATHE, Kan. — Almost four months after a shooting at Olathe East High School, the district announced the CrisisAlert safety system.
The district says "the CrisisAlert platform is an incident alerting solution that empowers teachers and staff to call for help with the push of a button on a badge they will wear in addition to their ID badge they wear daily."
On the day of the shooting, KSHB 41 spoke with parents who said it was their worst nightmare.
"This is a parents' worse nightmare, to hear there's an active shooter at their kids' school," one parent said back in March.
Kathyrn Carpenter, whose granddaughter attends the district, called for the district to take action to address safety after the shooting.
"I want to know I'm going to send her to school everyday, and know that I can pick her up in the afternoon, knowing that she's safe," Kathryn Carpenter said. "This is an issue that needs to be addressed now, not wait six months."
The district also said "this simple push of a button provides school/district administration, school resource officers, and other first responders with precise location information of the impacted staff member, enabling them to respond quickly in any situation. With the CrisisAlert badge, staff members will be able to alert administration for everyday student and staff events such as medical emergencies or in a crisis situation, staff would be able to initiate campus-wide lockdowns at the touch of a button."
"I'm very happy this is something new, it's very calming I guess," Kiyley Carpenter, who's heading into her junior year, said. "I'm hoping it's going to be a new start and more times of, I can relax a little bit, not be on the edge of my seat."
The CrisisAlert system is a result of a 2022 bond passed by the Olathe community. A new school year is on the horizon, with a new safety measure in place.
"[I'm] Excited that they addressed the issue, that it just didn't go on the back burner," Kathyrn Carpenter said.
Kiyley Carpenter said the new safety alert system adds some reassurance.
"I know there's a new safety plan that's going to happen, I feel very much more protected knowing that I have the teachers, the faculty, the staff, that are all involved in this, that know what they'll be doing," she said.
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