Founded in 1954, Seton Catholic Preparatory is a faith-based, co-educational secondary diocesan school in Chandler, Arizona. It serves a diverse student body of approximately 600 young men and women from more than 50 parochial, private, charter, public and home schools.

In addition to a focus on education, the Diocese of Phoenix also has a long history of working to provide safe environments for children and young people throughout their schools. As an example, security technology in place at Seton Catholic had included video surveillance, access control and public address systems. Policies and procedures were also in place at Seton Catholic to cover emergency situations but the school had no supporting technology to assist school officials in responding to an incident. If a student went missing or there was a medical emergency in the classroom, precious minutes could be lost before remedial action was started.

As a result and after in depth research they opted to implement Sielox’s Crisis Lockdown Alert Status System (CLASS).  “We are always looking to improve the safety of our school campus for our students, faculty and staff,” says Julie Grindey, Dean of Students at Seton Catholic Preparatory. “The offer from Technical Systems and Sielox was the perfect solution for us.”

Sielox Class is a crisis management system that enhances awareness and communication by providing real-time information for both on-site and emergency personnel through the use of graphical maps, chat, email and text messaging.

The system’s colour-coded icons make it easy for designated staff, security personnel and teachers to use. When teachers turn on their computer in the morning, the programme is automatically displayed. In the event of an emergency in the classroom, the teacher simply presses the corresponding colour-coded icon and the room number and nature of the alert is transmitted via text, chat or email to designated responders for their immediate action. The system further allows teachers to input via text, any additional pertinent information. For example, the blue icon is for medical emergencies and the teacher may indicate that the student is having an asthma attack, allowing more defined action can be taken.

Local police and EMT personnel can also receive alerts, allowing them to respond faster and with more information. Interactive classroom maps are monitored at the school and also by Technical Systems and can also be extended to Chandler Police Department dispatchers and control cars, providing exact location information.

In addition to the safety and security benefits afforded by the real-time alerts, the integration capability of Sielox Class will help take school security to the next level. The system is scheduled to be integrated with the school’s video surveillance and access control systems and also with the new public address system when it is installed. Additionally, Sielox controllers will replace existing access control hardware to create a single platform for overall control and more effective security.

“The ability to integrate Sielox Class with the school’s other systems is a valuable feature of Class for both budgetary and security reasons,” says Mike Baum, Business Development Manager at Technical Systems, Inc the integrator and designer for the project. “Schools need to take every precaution to ensure the safety of students, staff and visitors and Sielox Class helps them to do just that.”