GOES on WATE - New tool helping keep Anderson County Schools safe

Posted Date: 08/22/2022

CLINTON, Tenn. (WATE) — Anderson County Schools is taking the next step to secure its campuses and keep students and teachers safe.

A new online tool is improving communication and emergency response times. The Situational Awareness and Response Assistant, or SARA, sends alerts based on what’s happened and notifies emergency services and staff.

“It does seem very user-friendly. We just have to log in as we go into the classroom, we log in to that and then it’s just four buttons across the screen that’s all we have to do is one click,” said Jessica Bray, a kindergarten teacher at Grand Oaks Elementary School.

SARA displays four categories on a teacher’s computer screen and with one click they can notify others of a potentially dangerous situation. It can be used in instances of a medical emergency, student altercation, intruder, or active shooter. It also triggers the eyes of SARA, which provide live video from security cameras in the school.

Bray, who teaches kindergarten at Grand Oaks Elementary School, says it’s a welcome addition.

“I was really excited about it. It’s a security feature that just eases the minds of all of the classroom teachers,” said Bray.

A school resource officer is also assigned to each campus and key fob locks are installed on all classroom doors.

The district believes students and teachers deserve to feel safe.

“It gives me a lot of peace and a lot of comfort to know that all the staff members and students at our school are safe. That we have all these steps in place to keep us and our classroom safe here,” said Bray.

Bray is also the elementary school’s safety coordinator, which means she’s in charge of coordinating fire drills, lockdown drills, weather drills and several other safety measures.