RELATED: False alarm sends Springfield police to high school
The alarm was triggered shortly before 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at Schaefer Middle School, 147 S. Fostoria St. Radio traffic indicated several Springfield police officers scrambled to the middle school. They didn’t find any problems there and it appears a staff member hit the alarm accidentally.
School staff have set the distress signal off twice at Springfield High School and once at The Dome recently, also finding nothing once multiple police officers investigated.
“We are putting officers in a bad position. They are getting here to help us as quickly as they can and we don’t want to do that unnecessarily,” Springfield City School Security Coordinator Dave Lyle said.
The district is looking at ways to change the system to make it more difficult to set the alarm off, he said, but making sure it remains easily accessible in case of a real emergency.
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“Technology is working right now to see how we can slightly change the process. We need to change the process at least slightly to make it a little more difficult so we don’t have accidental activations,” he said.
He said he still believes the system works as police have made it to the school quickly each time the alarm has been set off. The school has held mandatory training sessions for employees in an attempt to stop the false alarms.
“It is frustrating,” Lyle said. “It’s a new system with new technology and obviously there are some bugs that need to be worked out. The bad thing is what’s at stake when the system gets activated, it’s a pretty big deal and we have to work through those things.”
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