Prairie Knolls Middle School students, teachers and staff, along with local area police and government officials, recently experienced what would happen if the Elgin school went on lockdown due to the possibility of an armed intruder on the site.
The live drill was conducted in order to show how BluePoint Alert Solutions, Elgin, works to keep people safe.
U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam activated the BluePoint alarm inside the school on Wednesday afternoon. The announcement immediately heard throughout the facility told everyone that the building was in lockdown, the police were notified, and help was on the way.
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Classrooms with teachers and students inside them went dark as doors were locked, but the hallways remained well lit. The silence throughout the building during the drill made it hard to believe there were over 600 students in the school at that time.
According to the BluePoint website, the system had its origins in the aftermath of the tragic Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut. During a regular client meeting around that time with Central Community Unit School District 301 Superintendent Todd Stirn, John McNutt, BluePoint co-founder and CEO, and Steve Nelson, licensed architect and BluePoint partner, discussed the idea of a user-friendly, rapid notification system for law enforcement and how valuable it could be for saving lives in extreme emergency situations.
“Today’s new reality is that there is increased violence in churches, workplaces and educational facilities,” Stirn said. “We need to be proactive and put systems in place to help secure buildings and improve communication. We want the quickest response possible in the event of an emergency.”
The BluePoint system has been installed in all of the schools in District 301 and Sycamore Community Unit School District 427. There have also been installations of the system in Michigan, Oklahoma and Colorado.
Rebecca Jurs, principal of Lily Lake Grade School in Maple Park, serves as District 301’s emergency preparedness director.
“The district has gone through a lot of collaboration with the local fire and police departments,” Jurs said. “We are doing what we feel is best in order to keep our schools safe. We will have other unannounced drills this year. Practicing safety measures is not always convenient, but it is necessary in our current times. Our goal is to empower our staff and students so they know what to do in the event of an emergency. We have had multiple school district officials come here to view the BluePoint system.”
“The BluePoint system is designed from the ground up to be as intuitive as a pulling a fire alarm yet more comprehensive in its alert and communications capabilities,” said McNutt.
“A teacher with a lanyard can activate the system even when they are outside of the building,” Stirn said. “Police coming to the school in the event of an emergency will immediately get a map of the school that shows where the alarm was activated.”
“This mapping shows us right where our squad team is needed,” said Elgin Police Commander Colin Fleury.
Denise Moran is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.