A new app debuting in six Wyoming schools could help keep students safe in the first few minutes of a school shooting. Called Owl for Schools, the platform allows teachers and administrators to communicate with each other in the chaotic moments before police arrive.
School staff use the app to mark if they’re safe, if someone has been shot, or if they see or hear the shooter. The app will then show where the shooter may be on a map and provide automated, real-time instructions based on school protocols.
“The idea was to have a tool for schools that enabled them to communicate in the midst of chaos,” said Sharon Jenkins, executive director of the Center for Applied Technology for School Security, the California-based nonprofit launching the app.
She said schools already use other security platforms intended to fill this gap, but this app was designed specifically for schools and can work alongside other platforms. Other everyday communication apps, like Slack, don’t offer automated guidance during shootings.
OWL for Schools takes 30 minutes to an hour to set up, and schools can choose to share app information with local law enforcement, as well, which Jenkins said can also be trained in how to use the app.
“Dispatchers say this would be phenomenal because they're flooded with calls and if they see immediately, ‘Okay, there's a medical emergency here,’ every second saves a life,” said Jenkins, who’s also an adjunct professor at the University of Wyoming College of Business.
In addition to Wyoming schools, Jenkins said the app is being implemented in schools in Kentucky and New Jersey — all for free, thanks to philanthropic dollars. The Double 4 Foundation in Casper, Wyo., has funded the app in 60 more schools in Wyoming, Montana and North Dakota.
Jenkins said lawmakers and shooting survivors in Idaho and Colorado have also shown interest. The goal is to expand the app nationwide, but sovfar, she said it’s been easier to implement the system in smaller, religious schools.
“The principal can make a decision, whereas in public schools , there is the school board, the superintendent,” Jenkins said, “The principal is one tiny piece in a much bigger matrix.”
The app launch comes as a shooter recently killed two kids during mass at a Minnesota Catholic school.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
