IPcelerate.com

Protecting Students and Staff at the GOAL Digital Academy and the Tomorrow Center

IPcelerate's Emergency Response Solution

At the GOAL Digital Academy, window and door sensors have been installed in key, secure areas. Wireless receivers are set up throughout the campus, and integrated with the IPsession™ Situational Awareness, integrated capability. If unauthorized access is attempted to a secured room, the IPcelerate solution generates a call to the Director of the Academy, via her cell phone as well as visual and audible notification (TTS) to predetermined Cisco IP Phones. In this manner, she is notified regardless of where she is or time of day.

At the Tomorrow Center, teachers now are equipped with panic buttons, either attached to necklaces or belt clips. If a threatening situation arises, the teacher presses his/her panic button and a visual and audible notification (TTS) is generated and transmitted nearly instantaneously to Cisco IP Phones located throughout the campus. Further, the wireless receiver environment includes the playground areas and adjacent sports fields – so any dangerous situation arising on campus grounds can be quickly identified.

About the Customer

Two Ohio public charter schools have implemented compelling IP Telephony applications using the IPcelerate IPsession™ Situational Awareness capability feature set to meet their education requirements. Funded entirely by state per-pupil allocations and federal grant funds, and founded in the Fall of 2002, these schools operate under a specific mandate.

One school, the GOAL Digital Academy, has been established as a premier distance learning center for K-12 students. Students of the Academy receive their curriculum via the Internet, and interact with teachers and classmates via e-mail, instant messaging, bulletin boards and occasional personal interactions.

The other school, the Tomorrow Center has been established to help educate troubled youth, ranging from grades 4-12. Here, students identified with severe behavioral issues are educated in a secure environment.

The traditional approach to these challenges was to place telephones, IP or otherwise, into the classroom environment. For the Tomorrow Center, this was determined to be inadequate, as teachers needed to be able to ‘call for help’ whether they were near a phone or not. For the GOAL Digital Academy, where students are attending remotely, a ‘classroom’ phone does not help address their needs.

Challenge

During the school day, potential exists for a dangerous situation to occur, placing faculty and students in physical danger. Teachers were being assaulted, students were fighting and equipment was being stolen. A panic code was configured to work on an IP Phone; however, teachers were not always near an IP Phone and didn’t have time to get to an IP Phone to trigger an alert.

Solution

IPcelerate, Inc.’s IPsessionTM server integrated with the Cisco IP Communications solution, wireless “panic-button” transmitters, and wireless location antennas. The “panic-buttons” were given to all the teachers at the school and location antennas were strategically placed throughout the campus and covered outside areas, such as the playgrounds and the baseball field. Teachers that sense or are in any type of dangerous situation are now able to press a single button and invoke a safety and security process within seconds.

Adding a specialized application to their Cisco IP Telephony investment has been the most effective way to deal with their requirements. Teacher and student safety at the Tomorrow Center has been addressed with this new advanced notification system. Further, critical, expensive equipment at the Academy is now more secure with an early warning system when unauthorized access is detected. For both, IPCELERATE applications have maximized their investment in Cisco IP Telephony by uniquely addressing critical challenges they face on a daily basis.

Results

Teachers and students of the schools feel better about their safety and security while at school and expensive equipment supporting the online school is protected via wireless door sensors. Not only can the IPsession provide the mechanism to alert IP Phones, but the server has also been configured to send a recorded message to any phone device via the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). Future enhancements include IP video surveillance and a comprehensive Education Application that addresses the “No Child Left Behind” Act.

Next Steps

Extending this capability to include notification at police departments and integrated video surveillance and recording are all considerations being considered and/or planned as next steps for the IPsession™ technology.

IPcelerate's Emergency Response Solution