Talbot County Public Schools describes Syntegix wearable alert rollout; staff trained, early uses recorded
Summary
District staff updated the board on a Syntegix crisis-alert rollout: staff wearables give a 3-press 'help' alert (local responders only) and an 8-press lockdown that notifies county leadership and first responders; district reported six local alerts across five schools in 2½ weeks and plans drills and quarterly data reviews.
District safety staff provided the Talbot County Board of Education with an update on the Syntegix crisis alert system on Jan. 14, describing how the system works and early usage.
According to the presentation by Miss Spurry, each staff member received a wearable badge with two functions: pressing the badge three times sends a "help needed" alert to that school's crisis-response team (it shows live location and context); pressing the badge eight times triggers a lockdown alert that notifies county emergency leadership and first responders with live location information. The district reported six local (3-press) alerts across five schools during the system’s first 2½ weeks of deployment.
The presentation included examples of how the system aided responses: a principal used the help alert when a student had a seizure in the cafeteria and confirmed faster administrative and nursing response, including precise timing information that guided medication administration. Staff described planned drills to familiarize students and staff with the strobe and intercom lockdown messaging and said the district will perform quarterly reviews of alert data to assess effectiveness and needed refinements.
Miss Spurry told the board Narcan is available in every school’s nurse office and several administrators are trained to administer it. The district also described how 3-press alerts are routed to internal response teams (administrators, nurses, SROs) for data and quality review and how 8-press alerts are routed to sheriffs and district leadership.
Next steps: quarterly data reviews, ongoing drills and continued staff training; board members requested additional clarifications on sheriff integration and asked for demonstrations and cost/operational details for broader security measures discussed elsewhere on the agenda.
