New Panic Buttons Worn By Ga. Teachers Likely Saved Lives In School Shooting: Authorities

Panic buttons worn by teachers during Wednesday’s school shooting in Winder, Georgia, are being credited with likely saving lives after they were activated by staff amid the violence, triggering a lockdown and notifying first responders to the shooter’s exact location, authorities said.

The emergency alert system, implemented in Winder less than two weeks ago, includes wearable badges that were given to faculty at Apalachee High School, Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said in a Thursday interview with NBC News.

Developed by the safety company Centegix, each badge features a small button that can trigger a schoolwide lockdown and alert first responders to a user’s location when pressed many times. For more minor incidents, users can request help from school administrators with fewer presses.

“We got multiple notifications as the shooting was going on from the teachers [on] where to respond,” Smith said of the electronic alerts that went out during the attack, which killed four people and wounded nine. “It also locks down the school. Screens were on lockdown, and the teachers know to go in and lock the doors.”

These instantaneous alerts helped authorities respond quickly and prevent additional deaths, he said.

“They’re telling me within six minutes of the first Centegix hit … he was in custody,” Smith said, crediting school resource officers for confronting the 14-year-old suspect and getting him to surrender.

At a press conference Wednesday, Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey likewise said that “the protocols at this school and this system activated today prevented this from being a much larger tragedy.”

Students and teachers, in interviews with reporters following the shooting, said they locked and