Improve Emergency Communication and Response

Challenges Faced

Bemidji Area Schools is a small district located in Bemidji, Minnesota, and it's in the same county as Red Lake Indian Reservation. The district maintains a close relationship with the Red Lake School District and would send buses to the reservation daily to bring students to their district. After the tragic Red Lake Senior High School shooting in 2005, Bemidji Area Schools needed to strengthen their school safety measure to keep students safe.

Their current safety protocols and resources were only available on paper, many of their departments had their own safety plans, and they were relying on two-way radios for emergency communication. They soon realized they needed a better way to communicate and share information during an emergency.

Proposed Solution

The health and safety staff from Bemidji Area Schools concluded CrisisGo's digital safety and crisis response platform would solve their school safety needs for emergency communication and response. Through Bemidji Area Schools' partnership with CrisisGo, they can quickly and easily:

• Alert all their key stakeholders with a single audible notification to let users know there's an emergency.
• Connect with all teachers, staff, and students through desktop and smartphone apps.
• Meet state law requirements for safety by providing digital access to their emergency plan and a complete list of staff and their roles.

As an added benefit, CrisisGo's school safety platform runs on Amazon Web Services, which ensures Bemidji Area Schools has the most reliable, secure, and redundant connection possible for their school safety needs.

Outcomes

Bemidji Area Schools has been using CrisisGo since 2015, and have successfully used CrisisGo to respond to multiple incidents including a bus that was involved in a head-on collision while out-of-town, a fight outside the high school building, and a bus rollover and air evacuation.

Greg Liedl, CrisisGo Administrator for Bemidji Area Schools, noted that the mass communication capabilities of CrisisGo makes responding to emergencies more efficient. He stated, "The nice part about CrisisGo is there is a one-button push. I don’t have to hunt down everyone and tell them what is going on."