NMS on WVLT - New safety technology keeping Anderson County students safe

Posted Date: 08/15/2022

ANDERSON CO., Tenn. (WVLT) - A new safety technology is keeping Anderson County students safe. The program, called the Situational Awareness and Response Assistant (SARA), allows staff in schools to request help with just a click of a button.

Every Anderson County campus will have access to SARA. If something happens in a classroom, staff can click a button and send an alert from a computer or cell phone. It alerts E-911 and appropriate school staff.

The options include: active shooter, intruder, medical emergency, student altercation and more can be added.

“It’s incredibly important because as we all know any time there’s an emergency situation response time is the key. And this allows us to expedite that response time without having to communicate with the office. We get that alert immediately,” said Rob Cummings, Principal, Norris Middle School. “It works really, really well.”

The system will cost the school system $18,000 a year. Leaders say they plan to implement more safety measures to the software in the coming years.

Anderson County Schools has a plethora of safety measures already in place including key fob entry classroom doors, locked building access where visitors ring a doorbell, video cameras, School Resource Officers and more.