A Long Island school has rolled out what it says is one of America’s most advanced security systems – able to autolock doors and assess threats in split seconds.
“It’s going to save lives,” XSponse CEO Lee Mandel said of Plainedge High School’s new state-of-the-art protective system unveiled ahead of the new school year.
Announced a day after the tragic shooting of Mass at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, each classroom at the North Massapequa campus has been outfitted with doors that autolock during emergencies and high-tech video monitors that first responders can access in real time.
“No one has been able to put eyes into a classroom. We’re, in essence, putting a first responder in every single classroom,” added Mandel.
School officials — each of whom carries a special smart-ID badge to activate the system — can make both announcements and livestream video through the devices to classrooms sheltering in place.
Badges have a Life Alert-esque panic button that, when pressed, sends a hyperlocal GPS location to its exact whereabouts in the building through a detailed, color-coded map of campus shared with responding authorities.
“Having that makes it incredible to really speed up the reaction time and the response for first responders,” Mandel said.
The badges also correspond to an active second in-classroom device that can communicate to the outside. Panic buttons are also placed around the school for students to use in emergencies.
The system’s feed, which is transmitted through hardwiring rather than relying on WiFi, is then shared with first responders and can be viewed at a command center in Superintendent Edward A. Salina’s on-campus office.
These high-tech monitors, which are front and center in each classroom, have shields over the cameras for privacy that are lowered only for lockdown procedures.
“Our staff is highly supportive,” said Salina, who explained that the use of XSponse was voted on by parents and the public and is being integrated across the district.
“They’re actually entrusted with taking care of the most precious assets in the world — children — every day. Anything they can do to make our children’s lives safer and better. They’re on board.”
To rule out misuse or tampering, the XSponse system can also detect aggressive behavior or vocal pitches and take a snapshot of whoever is touching one of the devices, added Salina, who is also incorporating armed guards into the school.
It also includes vape monitors embedded into ventilation systems to detect in-school smoking without students being alerted by a visible detector.
“We even have our system being tested for fentanyl detection right now, which is very, very big,” Mandel saod.
Significant supporters
What XSponse is doing in Plainedge — a blueprint for other schools across the nation — has been supported by two parents who have lost their own children during the Parkland school shooting of 2018.
Andrew Pollack, whose daughter Meadow was killed in the senseless attack, now works with the company to promote school safety.
“My daughter would want to know I’m making a difference in the world,” Pollack, originally of Oceanside, said.
“It’s amazing technology. I went to a board meeting in Plainedge, and it was a big turnout…they all wanted to see it.”
Ryan Petty, who lost his daughter Alaina in the shooting, emphasized how significant even a few split seconds taken off a response time can be.
“Parkland was over in under six minutes,” Petty, now a member of the Florida State Board of Education working with XSponse, said.
“Plainedge’s emergency response system will save minutes of time.”
A local celebrity, East Rockaway’s Joe Gannascoli, who played Vito in “The Sopranos,” serves as a parent ambassador for the company, simply because he has a high school-aged daughter.
“It gives me great peace of mind,” Gannascoli said of the new rollout he hopes to see implemented across LI.
Salina also praised Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman for launching a new strategic response unit for local schools on Wednesday.
“We have them on speed dial,” the superintendent said.
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