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Holyoke Elementary School Principal Andrea Kammer demonstrates the Guard911 app on her smartphone. — The Holyoke Enterprise | Johnson Publications

Hospital, school beef up security against active shooters

    While the phrase “active shooter” is often associated with high-profile incidents like the 1999 Columbine shooting, less deadly examples of gun violence don’t always hit national news.
    Holyoke EMS director Brady Ring said that, as a result, most people underestimate the risk of gun violence in the workplace.
    Now, Melissa Memorial Hospital and Holyoke schools have a low-key countermeasure for the hidden threat of workplace shootings — a smartphone app that complements 911 to rapidly alert law enforcement and local users about potential shootings in progress.
    “With active shooters, time means a lot,” Ring said. “The meat of the program is really to get law enforcement officers on the scene as quickly as possible.”
    Guard911® is installed on the phones of employees and allows them to speed dial 911 within a perimeter determined using remote, digital mapping. Perimeters are currently set up around the hospital, Holyoke Elementary and Holyoke JR/SR High.
    The app maps the location of alerts and shares information with local users and law enforcement. A partner application for law enforcement, Hero911®, notifies on- and off-duty officers and allows them to safely and quickly coordinate a response.
    Ring said the programs — which were funded using about three-quarters of the proceeds from a Holyoke EMS golf tournament last August, totaling $6,500 — were conceived as a way for the service to give back to Holyoke.
    “The community has been more than supportive of EMS, and now this was an opportunity for us and the hospital to do something for the community,” he said.
    The system first went online at the hospital Dec. 1. As of Feb. 20, Ring said 40-50 people at the hospital had installed the app, with the goal being 100-120 installations.
    In addition to its role as a security measure, another feature allows the hospital to alert employees of a patient in cardiac arrest.
    Holyoke School Superintendent Kyle Stumpf said the program grew out of talks between him and Ring about ways that the district could work with the hospital to protect students. Haxtun School District, which implemented the program last year, was also consulted before Holyoke’s program began in the fall.
    Stumpf said an added benefit of the app is the ability to contact first responders in the event that audibly making a call is unsafe.
    “In essence, it’s like a panic button — you can push the button, and it notifies someone for help,” he said.
    Only teachers have access to the app, which Stumpf said can also be used to alert first responders in the event of a large-scale medical emergency or bomb threat.
    He said that Holyoke is lucky, as a rural community, to have law enforcement based just minutes from their schools. In other rural areas, it could take up to an hour for officers to respond to an incident.
    Although the district has not had an occasion to activate the Guard911® system, Stumpf said it is better to have it and not need it than regret not having an additional layer of security.
    “It would be amazing if we never had to use it, but it’s definitely more peace of mind for parents and staff.”

Holyoke Enterprise

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Holyoke CO 80734