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School boasts visual PA system | clarionledger.com | The Clarion-Ledger
After a student gunman killed 33 people at Virginia Tech University in 2007, many Mississippi schools began drills for locking down buildings during an emergency.
Most schools were given bullhorns.
"That wasn't appropriate for our staff at our school," said Sandra Edwards, superintendent of the Mississippi School for the Deaf in Jackson.
Or as Dana Campbell, director of technology, public relations and transitional services, put it: "It just did not make sense."
School officials spent $600,000 to install visual public address systems, including DVD recorders and pan-tilt cameras, in the main buildings and dormitories. The money came from a bond issue through the Department of Finance Administration's Bureau of Buildings.
Phase II of the project involves installing systems in the School for the Blind, but funding has not been secured.
School officials say they are the first deaf school in the country to have visual PA systems in every classroom.
A few years ago, there was a standoff at a nearby gas station, and the campus had to be locked down. Hearing staff members had to spread the news to each other.
"We were just in a frenzy," Campbell said.
That type of situation is "scary for everybody," Principal Leigh Warren said.
The school long has had an auditory communication system. A telephone still hangs on the wall of Holly Reichle's classroom.
Reichle, who teaches fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade reading and language development, said she uses the PA system to reach other staff.
If she's teaching a science lesson and needs to know the sign for Jupiter, she can ask another teacher and get a demonstration without leaving her classroom.
"We do it all the time," she said.
When a message is sent, flat-screen television monitors flash the words "new message" in black and white, then the message appears.
The equipment is not just for emergencies. It allows announcements to be shared with everyone in the school at one time.
Teachers can monitor each others' classrooms and share teaching techniques without leaving their classrooms.
DVDs can be played on the equipment, and if there are discipline problems, administrators can monitor a classroom and record them. That has helped deter discipline problems, Edwards said.
Robert Chain Jr. of Brandon has a first-grade daughter at the school who performed a numbers story on the system.
"It was very cool," Chain, who also attended the school, said through an interpreter.
Victorica Monroe, 21, of Pelahatchie is a student at Gallaudet University, where they have a visual PA system but not in every classroom.
Such technology should be everywhere, she said. For example, if a profoundly deaf person has to stay overnight at the hospital, that individual would have to rely on someone able to hear and on an interpreter.
"That's the key: equal access to everyone," she said.
Kevin Cronin, a dorm director at the school, said he went to a public school and was unable to hear the announcements over the intercom.
"I felt restricted, but now I feel included," he said.
The systems run 2 4/7 all around campus and in common areas of dorms, Campbell said.
"It gives us a sense of pride as well that we have something like this," school alumnus Tyrone Blackmon said through an interpreter.
He is now the football coach and has a son at the school.
When Blackmon was a student, if there was a tornado warning, someone would have to run from classroom to classroom to notify everyone, he said.
"It was insane," he said. "But that is a thing of the past now."
After a student gunman killed 33 people at Virginia Tech University in 2007, many Mississippi schools began drills for locking down buildings during an emergency.
Most schools were given bullhorns.
"That wasn't appropriate for our staff at our school," said Sandra Edwards, superintendent of the Mississippi School for the Deaf in Jackson.
Or as Dana Campbell, director of technology, public relations and transitional services, put it: "It just did not make sense."
School officials spent $600,000 to install visual public address systems, including DVD recorders and pan-tilt cameras, in the main buildings and dormitories. The money came from a bond issue through the Department of Finance Administration's Bureau of Buildings.
Phase II of the project involves installing systems in the School for the Blind, but funding has not been secured.
School officials say they are the first deaf school in the country to have visual PA systems in every classroom.
A few years ago, there was a standoff at a nearby gas station, and the campus had to be locked down. Hearing staff members had to spread the news to each other.
"We were just in a frenzy," Campbell said.
That type of situation is "scary for everybody," Principal Leigh Warren said.
The school long has had an auditory communication system. A telephone still hangs on the wall of Holly Reichle's classroom.
Reichle, who teaches fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade reading and language development, said she uses the PA system to reach other staff.
If she's teaching a science lesson and needs to know the sign for Jupiter, she can ask another teacher and get a demonstration without leaving her classroom.
"We do it all the time," she said.
When a message is sent, flat-screen television monitors flash the words "new message" in black and white, then the message appears.
The equipment is not just for emergencies. It allows announcements to be shared with everyone in the school at one time.
Teachers can monitor each others' classrooms and share teaching techniques without leaving their classrooms.
DVDs can be played on the equipment, and if there are discipline problems, administrators can monitor a classroom and record them. That has helped deter discipline problems, Edwards said.
Robert Chain Jr. of Brandon has a first-grade daughter at the school who performed a numbers story on the system.
"It was very cool," Chain, who also attended the school, said through an interpreter.
Victorica Monroe, 21, of Pelahatchie is a student at Gallaudet University, where they have a visual PA system but not in every classroom.
Such technology should be everywhere, she said. For example, if a profoundly deaf person has to stay overnight at the hospital, that individual would have to rely on someone able to hear and on an interpreter.
"That's the key: equal access to everyone," she said.
Kevin Cronin, a dorm director at the school, said he went to a public school and was unable to hear the announcements over the intercom.
"I felt restricted, but now I feel included," he said.
The systems run 2 4/7 all around campus and in common areas of dorms, Campbell said.
"It gives us a sense of pride as well that we have something like this," school alumnus Tyrone Blackmon said through an interpreter.
He is now the football coach and has a son at the school.
When Blackmon was a student, if there was a tornado warning, someone would have to run from classroom to classroom to notify everyone, he said.
"It was insane," he said. "But that is a thing of the past now."