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October 26, 2009
By Lauren Matson
Press Release
MONTGOMERY- Alabama Homeland Security Director Jim Walker congratulates Monroe County Schools for their efforts in enhancing safety for their school children.
The Monroe School System has successfully loaded floor plans of all eleven campuses into Virtual Alabama. In doing this, Monroe County first responders can now see a virtual picture of the schools. For Excel High School specifically, all 45 security cameras are also linked into Virtual Alabama.
“In response to one of Governor Bob Riley’s top priorities, we are taking school safety to the next level,” Director Walker said. “It’s important that our educators and first responders have the best tools to protect our school children. With Monroe County Schools now connected to Virtual Alabama, real-time information is available to them. That’s important in a crisis.”
Virtual Alabama is a 3-D, interactive program. Law enforcement and emergency personnel across the state use the program in loading data that’s important to a specific situation. With the Virtual Alabama School Safety Initiative, a team from Auburn University Montgomery’s Center for Government chooses one school in a district to map first. However, representatives from surrounding schools attend the session so they have the tools and training to load imagery for their respective school. With local law enforcement and emergency managers from the county also attending the training sessions, the group learns the Virtual Alabama program and decides what information would be significant to know in a crisis. By the end of the district’s training session, floor plans of all the schools are visible in Virtual Alabama.
Monroe County School Superintendent Melanie Ryals said, “We are excited to become the sixth school system to become part of the Virtual Alabama School Safety Initiative. Virtual mapping of each campus will ensure that in the event of an emergency, first responders such as law enforcement and fire and rescue will have access to immediate and accurate information for each of our schools.”
“Our first priority at Excel High School is the safety and well being of our students and staff,” Excel High School Principal Kevin York added. “The Virtual Alabama program has helped to bring our school and the first responders together to share vital information.”
According to Auburn Montgomery’s Associate Vice Chancellor of University Outreach Matthew Duke, the Virtual Alabama School Safety Initiative is building stronger relationships between educators and the first responder communities.
“Because the relationships are being built now, rather than in the midst of a crisis, our school, law enforcement and fire protection officials will be better able to plan and respond to incidents,” Duke said. “Our children will be safer for it."
The Virtual Alabama School Safety Initiative is a partnership with the Alabama Homeland Security Department, Alabama Department of Education, Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center and Auburn University Montgomery Center for Government.
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