Belleville elementary schools to equip teachers with wearable panic buttons
Starting this coming school year, all Belleville School District 118 teachers will be able to summon an emergency response with just the press of a button.
The school board approved a $91,380 agreement with Raptor Technologies at its Tuesday night meeting. This will cover the cost of equipping all teachers and some staff with panic buttons, a corresponding emergency management system and initial training for the first school year.
“The capabilities of this system will meet the needs of our schools and district and enhance safety and security,” Superintendent Ryan Boike said in a statement.
The panic buttons can notify and send details of incidents, including a location within a school building, to first responders without having to call 911. It can also send campus-wide notifications.
Corresponding software also helps track which students, staff and visitors are in school, assist with drill compliance and manage family reunification if needed, Raptor Technologies’ website states.
The use of Raptor Technologies is not limited to security concerns; it can also be used in situations like medical emergencies.
At Tuesday’s school board meeting, Boike said the cost for the first year is higher because it includes training needed to implement the system. He told the BND that he expects future annual costs to be $5,250 per school, or an annual total of $57,750.
The district is paying for the $91,380 first-year costs out of its budget.
Belleville 118 isn’t the only metro-east school district to implement Raptor Emergency Management Systems or similar technology.
Belleville Township High School District 201 employees don similar wearable badges with emergency buttons through the Centegix Safety Platform, a decision their school board made in October 2024.
East St. Louis School District 189 spokesperson Sydney Stigge-Kaufman said the district is considering adding Raptor’s badge alert system to its safety lineup.
District 189 has used other Raptor safety and security tools since fall 2024, Stigge-Kaufman said. The Raptor software it does utilize can initiate campus-wide notifications, lockdowns and drills. The technology can even time how long it takes students and staff to evacuate the building or get to designated weather shelters.
“There’s a wide range of options of how to use the Raptor system,” Stigge-Kaufman said.
Soon even more metro-east school districts may use technology like Raptor and Centegix’s wearable alert buttons. Both the Illinois House and Senate passed a bill that would require schools to consider the use of mobile panic alert systems in their safety and crisis planning by the beginning of the 2028-2029 school year. The legislation awaits Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s signature.
Similar legislation has passed in more than 10 other states. They’re commonly called “Alyssa’s Law” in honor of Alyssa Alhadeff, a student who died in the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida.
“While the anticipation of this becoming law was a consideration, the safety of our students and staff remains the highest priority when evaluating options to provide the safest possible learning environment,” Boike said in an email.