Schools To Install Alarms

Montgomery County (Penn.) will spend $1 million to install silent alarms in all 660 of the county’s public, private and parochial schools, linked directly to the county’s public safety comm center and dubbed the Countywide Law Enforcement Alerting and Safety System (CLASS). County commission chair Thomas Jay Ellis said the plan was sparked by the murders in Lancaster County at an Amish school. He admitted that the panic buttons and alarms would not deter or prevent violence, “but will give us more time, should such an event occur–more time for our emergency personnel to respond and hopefully save lives.” The commissioners said CLASS would be developed with the intention of expanding it to include additional features, such as wireless transmitters, or a direct, two-way communication system to allow the comm center to communicate with schools about current situations. The county hopes to have the panic alarm systems installed by the fall 2007.