Is Your Family Prepared for an Emergency at School

Important Safety Checklist is Released for Students, Parents & Schools

(August 20, 2007) You’re driving to a lunch meeting when you hear a radio report that there’s a lockdown at your child’s school. Do you and your kids know how to communicate with each other to make sure everyone is safe?

As part of Defywire’s commitment to “Keeping Kids Safe and Teachers Teaching”, Jill Stelfox and Defywire, Inc. (www.defywire.com) have released a Safety Checklist designed as a quick reference in case an emergency develops at school, or anytime kids and parents are apart.

“Everyone gets consumed by supplies and other back-to-school activities, “ says Stelfox, CEO of Defywire, “but the most important issue for parents, schools and kids to focus on is what will they do in an emergency situation when their safety and security is threatened.”

Using Stelfox’s unique knowledge of technology and school safety, Defywire’s Safety Checklist takes standard advice a step further. “When emergencies happen, cell sites in the local area get completely overwhelmed, and a call from one local tower to another is unlikely to be completed,” Stelfox says. Instead, instruct your child to call grandma in Tuscaloosa or Uncle Bob in California to report that he is fine and where he is located; the out-of-town person will have an easier time getting through to you to relay the message.

Another example is to instruct your children to use a short text message code with an agreed-upon meaning in an emergency. If the worst happens and your child is being held hostage in a classroom, the last thing she needs to do is risk her life by typing a long message to you. A pre-set word such as “stars” could quickly and safely convey the message, “I am in danger at school.”

On 9/11, Stelfox was haunted by the knowledge that she could track an express mail package more easily than she could locate her children at school. With a background in mobile technology, she began a company dedicated to providing teachers, bus drivers, school officials and parents with the capacity to monitor kids’ whereabouts throughout the school day and to provide immediate access to a wide range of student information.

Earlier this year, Stelfox launched the “Enough is Enough” campaign by pledging to donate one million dollars of Defywire’s premier software package Mobile Guardian Safety Suite to protect students in the United States. To date, over 150 school districts have contacted Defywire to utilize this technology.

Any school district interested in immediately receiving the technology should go to www.defywire.com and click on Enough is Enough for additional details.

Contact Information

Molly Boyle

President

Front Porch Media Group

Contact via E-mail