Castleberry ISD is the First School District in Texas to Install the Rapid Responder Crisis Management System

New System Provides School, Police, and Fire with Key Information to Help Protect Students and Staff

SEATTLE, WA -- January 9, 2007 -- The Castleberry Independent School District today announced they are the first school district in Texas to install the Rapid Responder® crisis management system to protect students, staff, and buildings during an emergency. The district was awarded an Emergency Response and Crisis Management grant for $100,400 from the U.S. Department of Education earlier this year. Seattle-based Prepared Response, Inc. was awarded the technology contract and will be installing Rapid Responder in all of the district’s elementary, middle, high school, and administration facilities in the coming months. The district will also receive bio-emergency/infectious disease and critical incident training/response courses as part of the grant.

The Rapid Responder system provides school security, police, fire, and other first responders with key information that allows them to act quickly, decisively, and in a coordinated response with other responders. Implementation of the system includes preplanning meetings between school officials and first responders, “digital mapping” of the school buildings, and system training for both school staff and responders. Agencies responding to an emergency now will be able to view more than 300 data points, including floor plans, satellite and geospatial (GIS) information, interior and exterior photos, emergency plans, hazardous materials locations, utility shut-offs, and evacuation routes. Rapid Responder is the only crisis management system to have been “Certified” as a “Qualified Anti-Terrorism Technology” through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s SAFETY Act.

“Castleberry ISD has always prided itself on working closely with emergency personnel to protect our students and staff,” said Superintendent Gary Jones. “The cutting-edge, all-hazards Rapid Responder system takes our emergency planning to a new level by improving coordination and response during a crisis. It allows response agencies to develop crisis plans before an event occurs thus saving time during an emergency.”

Last November, Prepared Response conducted an orientation meeting with school administrators and first responders to coordinate emergency planning and discuss the implementation of the system over the next few months. Representatives from Fort Worth Police and Fire, River Oaks Police and Fire, Sansom Park Police and Fire, and Tarrant County attended the meeting. A pre-plan tactical meeting was held in December to develop response plans for any crisis.

The Rapid Responder system was used at a Washington state high school to quickly contain a gunman and evacuate 2,000 students in 20 minutes, and in another incident to locate the shut-off valve for a broken fire sprinkler system saving the district more than $100,000 in damage.