After kids scurried off to class, the press of a single button on a credit card-sized device started their day with flashing red strobe lights and a lockdown announcement over the intercom.
It was part of a code red drill at Choices in Learning Elementary Charter School in Seminole County, where staff are testing a wearable crisis alert button designed to speed up emergency responses.
The device on a lanyard, part of Centegix's CrisisAlert system, can send a staff member's location to authorized users, provide access to nearby security cameras and trigger alerts across the school.
Principal Jordan Rodriguez said the system is designed to cut down on the time it takes to respond.
"It cuts seconds off a response, and when you have a potential active shooter on campus or if it's a medical assist, seconds matter," he said. "I mean, that can be the difference between somebody surviving and somebody, unfortunately, bleeding out."
With a set number of clicks, the system can trigger the school's flashing strobes, an intercom announcement and a takeover of classroom screens.
"When you have the ability to lock down an entire campus with a click of a button," Rodriguez said. "You can't beat that."
The system is intended to work from anywhere on campus. Centegix said its badges can provide responders with floor- and room-level location information, rather than simply showing a general location within a school building.
Designed to prevent false alarms
One concern with any panic button is accidentally setting off an emergency alert.
Rodriguez said the system uses different numbers of clicks for different types of alerts. Three clicks can request medical assistance while eight clicks are required to activate a lockdown.
That makes it less likely that someone will accidentally trigger an alert by bumping or pressing the badge.
"You really got to be clicking this thing a while," Rodriguez said. "So it's unlikely like you're going to be bumping up against something, and then you get to eight and it activates a false alert."
Tied to Alyssa's Law
Florida schools are required to have mobile panic alarm systems under Alyssa's Law, which was passed in 2020 following the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.
The law is named for Alyssa Alhadeff, one of the students killed in the shooting. Her mother, Lori Alhadeff, pushed for school employees to have a way to quickly call for emergency help.
Dean Olds, Centegix vice president of innovation,said the company wanted to build on that requirement by creating a system that could also communicate with people inside a school.
"When you look at the visual strobes that go off, the intercom integration, these are things that only we do because it's a way that we feel strongly you need to communicate with the building," Olds said.
The lockdown system
Previous approaches have relied on mobile phones or app-based systems. The wearable button gives staff a dedicated device, so they don't have to rely on a personal phone.
Rodriguez the button can even be used for situations that don't involve an active threat.
Staff can use different activation sequences to request help for incidents such as medical emergencies or behavioral situations. Rodriguez said the school is also exploring other features of the system.
Centegix said its technology includes artificial intelligence-enabled features that can identify unusual patterns of movement in monitored areas. For example, Olds said, a sudden crowd gathering in one location could trigger an alert about a potential fight.
The company says its system is used by more than half of public schools nationwide and reaches more than 1.5 million students.
According to the company, more than half of Florida's school districts implemented the system, including Hillsborough, Pinellas, Manatee and Citrus counties.
As Seminole County continues to roll out the technology, Centegix said it hopes to expand the system to more schools across Central Florida and potentially to colleges.
Copyright 2026 Central Florida Public Media
