Every second counts when communicating about a school emergency. That's why the Martin County School District says it's upgrading its radio systems and cell service in schools to keep your kids protected in the classroom.
Schools are not known for great cell service.
"The biggest reason is the way they’re built. It’s not made for outside frequency to come in because it’s made to withstand a hurricane," said Martin County Schools Safety and Security Chief Frank Frangella.
He says an incident two years ago showed they needed to make some upgrades.
"We had an incident at Crystal Lake [Elementary] where a child got hurt and the SRO on campus couldn’t go over their radio and literally had to run outside the building to go over the radio to get fire rescue to come," he said. "And it was like, 'That’s it, we have to do something about that.'"
Last year, the district began a pilot program at Crystal Lake Elementary School and South Fork High School, both well-known for their poor signals. System upgrades included putting antennas in the schools to help pull in a stronger signal.
Frangella says the upgrades were successful, and they are now making the updates to other school campuses as well, though not all need the full upgrade.
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He says the improved communication system can speed up response times and ultimately save lives.
"We can put in all the tools we want into our schools, but if we don’t have a way to communicate that out what good is it?" he said. "So, we train on 'We see something, we say something, we do something.' But if we're not giving them the means to do it, how do we get that out?"
