Rusty Bates, director of safety for Limestone County Schools, demonstrates how a night stick and military-grade mace can be used to distract and disable a school shooter.

With the start of a new school year, safety continues to be a top priority at Limestone County Schools, according to Safety Director Rusty Bates.

“We prepare for the worst and hope for the best,” Bates said Tuesday to a crowd of North Alabama Medical Reserve Corp volunteers at East Limestone High School.

By the time school let out for the summer, 23 school shootings had occurred nationwide in which someone was hurt or killed, according to a CNN report. That’s more than one shooting per week, marking a significant increase over last year’s numbers.

Limestone County Schools has been a leader in the state when it comes to cutting-edge safety programs. It is one of the only school systems in Alabama to have an armed School Resource Officer (SRO) in every school and it was the first in the state to incorporate the Rave Panic Button and install SafeDefend boxes.

Bates said the school system partnered with the Limestone County Commission to expand the number of SROs to all the county elementary schools after the 2012 Sandy Hook School shooting in Newton, Connecticut.

“They are our first line of defense,” Bates said. “But, we have worked hard to train our administrators and teachers to respond to an active-shooter situation as well.”

“All of our administrators know how to pick up a firearm and take over if necessary,” he added. “They are ready to protect our kids.”

Every second counts in an active-shooter situation, which is why having an officer on campus who can respond to a threatening situation gives county school’s a “huge advantage” over systems that do not, Bates said.

The next layer of protection that sets the county apart from other districts is the Rave Panic Button — a mobile application that allows school employees to call for help with the push of a button. Linked directly to the Athens-Limestone County 911 call center, school employees can simultaneously signal to 911 dispatchers and one another that they have a shooter situation, a fire or a medical emergency on their hands.

“Nowadays, most schools don’t have intercoms, but everybody carries their cellphones,” Bates said. “The Rave Panic Button connects everyone affected by the situation so everyone is aware of what is going on.”

Having this sort of coordination cuts down on response times and allows 911 dispatch to respond appropriately to the event.

“Our third layer of protection comes in the form of our SafeDefend boxes,” Bates said.

SafeDefend was founded by Jeff Green, a former assistant principal, in response to the growing number of school shootings in the United States.

The Limestone County Board of Education agreed to pay an estimated $600,000 to install and maintain the boxes in most classrooms in the county. The safe-like box can only be accessed via a registered fingerprint scan and contains an array of self-defense and first-aid items designed for active-shooter situations. The box, which is connected to a central board in the main office, contains a flashlight with a strobe function, plastic handcuffs, a telescoping self-defense baton, military-grade mace, a tourniquet, trauma pack, whistle and yellow safety vest. When a school employee opens one box, the main office is notified and all other boxes on campus emit a signal, notifying others a problem may exist. At the same time, alarms and strobes go off in the hallways.

“The items in the box are designed to give teachers a fighting chance against an active shooter,” Bates said. “Each item is designed to either distract or injure the intruder and stop them from carrying out their plan.”

Bates said students and school employees go through at least two active shooter drills per year so they will know what to do if threatened by a school shooter. In additional to bi-annual active shooter drills, every school employee must undergo safety training which includes instructions on how to use the Rave Panic Button and SafeDefend boxes.

NAMRC Director Brooke Rawlins said she was amazed by the level of security offered in Limestone County Schools. NAMCRC is a local nonprofit organization that sends out trained volunteers to help when disaster strikes.

“Hearing about how this system is protecting their schools gives us the tools to know how to respond if we are ever called to an active shooter situation,” Rawlins said. “Thankfully, we haven’t had to do that yet, but our volunteers need to be ready for anything.”

NAMRC is actively seeking volunteers. For more information about the organization visit their website at https://www.northalabamamrc.com/.