AlertNow System?

The kids brought home a piece of paper from the school for us to fill out today, and really we thought nothing of it until I read the back of it. They are implementing an AlertNow System that will automaticly phone parents in the event of an emergency. I thought hmmm that's odd, they ususally just call and I can't imagine needing this kind of system on a massive scale ...unless they were planning for something.

What caught my attention was three words, or examples of when the system might contact us on the back in parenthesis...
Relocation, Evacuation, and Lockdown.

Ummm, since when does the school's policy not include us comming to get our kids the hell out of school in the event of an emergency? Anybody else find this deeply disturbing? I googled it and apparently it is comming to a town near you as well, and it has nothing to do with the County School System aparently as they already have our contact information. This is some kind of centralized system that can make six thousand phone calls a minute. My youngest Daughter used the words "Secured Location" when she was telling me about it so I am going to be making some phone calls this afternoon and I will give you guys more information as I come into it, anybody else know where this came from? Did I miss some Education Bill?

There was a rumor in the Conspiracy Community several years back that Uncle Sam was tossing around the idea of 'Relocating' children from schools in the event of an 'Emergency', we all laughed it off as ridiculous.
I stoped laughing about it today.

I don't think it is all that sinister. We use alert trees to disseminate the information at our hospital in the event of a disaster I call 3 people, those 3 people each call 3 more people and so on.

If you could automate the system, it could in effect put out an alert much faster and free people up to do other things.

Secure location?? That could be anything froma field safely away from powerlines, tree's etc to a gym etc. Call the school and find out what they mean.


BTW are you really an "Angry Hippy"? I thought it was like go with the flow man


[edit on 10/17/05 by FredT]

Yeah but then again Fred, like I said before...
"since when does the school's policy not include us comming to get our kids the hell out of school in the event of an emergency?"
Relocation? I'll be damned.

Yep, Angry Hippie. Real Hippies don't go with the flow man, that's a Stereotype created by The Man to mitigate our social impact.

Mass casultiy incident, chemical leak, biological terrorist attack. THere are a few scenarios that could crop up and they could not wait for parents to show up. What if your area was under quarenteen???

Im not making excuses for the man now mind you

as a matter of fact i got one about a month ago. which tripped me out. it scared the crap out out of me and i asked my kids to hide and start walking a certain path home for me to get them.

What School System Shar? Or What Area? I'm wondering if this National or just reigonal.

my kids goto berekely county wv schools

Well I hope Fred is right and this is some harmless new system for our safety, but something just doesn't seem right about this at all. They already had contigency plans for emergencies, which involved getting the kids home to the parents, certainly not relocating them.
I'm in WNC shar so that's East Coast so far eh?

well it seems like they enjoy separating parents and kids as the department of homeland security did during katrina disaster when they took parents to one place and kids to another how rude could they get. they told the parents they would be back for them but they did not take them to the same place. it makes familys extremely vulnerable when they are having to look for thier kids instead of concentrating on survival.

It seems to me that the school systems are trying to make it easier for the parents to get to their kids in the case of a major emergency as to the needs of relocation. I see no harm in that, matter of fact I would strongly prefer that.

If there is a chemical spills at or near the school then the parents will NOT be allowed to get to the school. Would you want your kids stuck there? Or taken safely to a new location where you could meet them or pick them up?

That is what I get from this.

Also the lock down is and has been implemented before, such as if a criminal escapes from a nearby prison, or there was a crime committed too close to the school then the Admins and teachers usually locked the school down until further notice. Again you would not be ALLOWED near the school until given the OK. Regardless if you have kids at that school.

I don't think you should read too much into the thing twitchy

[edit on 10-17-2005 by BlackBeard]

i do not live nowhere a chmical plant. I do not live near a prison. and relocating them here is not in our best interest. given the fact that there will be such confusion as to where they took them. they never gave us clear answers. still like i said unless it was an attack of some kind, nothing major should happen here.

How about if they included the places of refuge in the paper?
Perhaps if we knew in advance that they were to be delivered to a local fire station or some place like that, it would be less threatening.

I think we could agree that if there were a real danger to our children, and time was short, the school should be responsible to get the kids to safety.

Now if they refused to give the locations to us parents when we request it, I would be highly suspicious.

I am sure that they will divulge that information when they call, but as far as them putting it on paper could be considered a security breach of some sort. But I would not think they would call and say:

"Such and such an emergency is happening. We will call back when you son/daughter is in a safe location."

But those are questions to ask at a PTA meeting or something like that. Still get as much info as possible before jumping the gun and flipping out.

I wonder how much money the school district is paying to implement this program? It seems like the school district is selling fear to the parents, most likely as a justification for increased school taxes. I'd much rather see school districts spend money on programs that directly further education rather than on new buildings and conveniences for school administrators.

Mark my words and watch your wallet.
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Originally posted by twitchy
The kids brought home a piece of paper from the school for us to fill out today, and really we thought nothing of it until I read the back of it. They are implementing an AlertNow System that will automaticly phone parents in the event of an emergency. I thought hmmm that's odd, they ususally just call and I can't imagine needing this kind of system on a massive scale ...unless they were planning for something...What caught my attention was three words, or examples of when the system might contact us on the back in parenthesis...Relocation, Evacuation, and Lockdown....Ummm, since when does the school's policy not include us comming to get our kids the hell out of school in the event of an emergency? Anybody else find this deeply disturbing?...

Maybe they are planning to announce of a possible Bird Flu case in the school...

I found this on Alex's site


www.prisonplanet.com...

no way in hell. If that comes home with my kids, then I will have to seriously think about homeschooling. If there is something going on that they feel might be serious enough to keep me from my kids, then Im packing up, moving to the farm and schooling them myself. May sound kind of far out, but I have always had nightmares about the govt. taking and being in charge of my kids. Not gonna happen. Twitchy, you have every right to freak out.

I am going to have to do a lot more research on this, because I think that a lot of it is being blown way out of control and a lot of people are now becoming paranoid. My Fiance works for a School, I will talk to her about this and see what she can find out.

BTW, she is a school psychologist.

Well here's the homepage for AlertNow

www.saftnet.net...

THis system is harmless and very useful. My wife used to work for the company that set up these systems in school systems, hospitals and local government. In a school environment, the system is designed to call all the numbers available for parents, and even email alerts when something might disrupt the school day.
For instance, a few years ago there was an armed bank robery in town only a block from a school. The school locked down the grounds and buildings fro students safety form the armed robbers who were on foot heading in that direction. The parents were notified what was happening and were told not to approach the school for this reason. In this case it cleared the area and the suspects were captured. The system then sent out a clear to all of the parents too.

I have also seen this used a a form of communication to let parents know of upcoming school events. With all of the latchkey kids these days, parents may not get the mail filtered by teh kids of open houses, parent teacher conferences, and kids skipping school. Imagine the possibilities in areas such as New york City. Something like this could have very useful to parents and the loacal governments on 9/11.

You migt want to encourage the use of such a system as you might learn more about what kids are up to at school, and have a piece of mind that your kids are safe. I think the biggest problem with our society these day are parents not taking an active role in their kids education, and not even knowing if there kids are IN school. this could be a useful tool to keep them in school and safe. Just a thought.

Final note: the company saftnet and alertnow are responsible companies and have been in business for almost a decade. Many of the school systems in NC are using the services, and it works.