Miss-Delectable
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New Emergency System for Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind
A new emergency notification system is being put in place at the Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind in Staunton.
Right now, the school is undergoing a massive construction project that will include new school buildings and dormitories.
Director of Public Safety Blake Porter says the current emergency notification system didn't give the school as much coverage as it wanted.
"Email notifications, phone calls to various administrative offices, and text messages to cell phones. It is somewhat of a hit or miss system. We don't have the coverage we need," says Porter.
In its place will be a new color system with five different flashing color strobe lights mounted on the walls in building across campus for deaf students and audio messages that will be transmitted from the fire alarm system for blind students.
"What we've come up with is a mass communication system that utilizes strobe lights of various colors for different emergencies and an accompanying voice message, pre-programmed voice message, so we activate a single button and that activates the emergency message and it's transmitted throughout the campus," explains Porter.
One color the school says will be particularly important for the Staunton area will be blue.
"It's our severe weather emergency. If there are severe thunderstorms or the inevitable tornado as they are growing in popularity these days, we do have a tornado announcement," comments Porter.
The new system also includes an unexpected color: green.
Still, that color will be an extremely important part of the new system.
"Why would we need green? The green is the all clear. The problem we have had in our previous mode of operation is that, when the emergency is over, a large population never knew the emergency had ended because they weren't able to be communicated with when they are in their safe shelters," says Porter.
The new system is already in place in three buildings and is expected to expand throughout the campus.
When students return to the school in the fall, all emergency drills will be carried out with the new system.
A new emergency notification system is being put in place at the Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind in Staunton.
Right now, the school is undergoing a massive construction project that will include new school buildings and dormitories.
Director of Public Safety Blake Porter says the current emergency notification system didn't give the school as much coverage as it wanted.
"Email notifications, phone calls to various administrative offices, and text messages to cell phones. It is somewhat of a hit or miss system. We don't have the coverage we need," says Porter.
In its place will be a new color system with five different flashing color strobe lights mounted on the walls in building across campus for deaf students and audio messages that will be transmitted from the fire alarm system for blind students.
"What we've come up with is a mass communication system that utilizes strobe lights of various colors for different emergencies and an accompanying voice message, pre-programmed voice message, so we activate a single button and that activates the emergency message and it's transmitted throughout the campus," explains Porter.
One color the school says will be particularly important for the Staunton area will be blue.
"It's our severe weather emergency. If there are severe thunderstorms or the inevitable tornado as they are growing in popularity these days, we do have a tornado announcement," comments Porter.
The new system also includes an unexpected color: green.
Still, that color will be an extremely important part of the new system.
"Why would we need green? The green is the all clear. The problem we have had in our previous mode of operation is that, when the emergency is over, a large population never knew the emergency had ended because they weren't able to be communicated with when they are in their safe shelters," says Porter.
The new system is already in place in three buildings and is expected to expand throughout the campus.
When students return to the school in the fall, all emergency drills will be carried out with the new system.