Some Cobb County Teachers To Be Equipped With Panic Buttons

Employees at three Cobb schools will be carrying panic buttons this year, giving them the power to communicate the type of emergency to the central office, which can then put a school on lockdown.

Officer Phillip Bradford handles emergency response for the Cobb County School District’s police force. He said the new system can cut response time down to seconds. 

“Right now, especially at our high schools, it takes minutes for a proper response or to begin the response,” Bradford said.

The alarm system costs $5 million, which covers the Cobb school system’s plan to implement the alert program in all 112 of its schools.

It’s being funded through the special purpose local options sales tax, SPLOST IV and SPLOST V, that county voters approved over the last few years.

Kennesaw Mountain High School, Bells Ferry Elementary and Clarkdale Elementary will serve as test locations for the systems this school year.