Video Intercoms Help Protect Arizona School Entrances
AmeriSchools install mag lock systems to increase security on their four campuses.
AmeriSchools installed mag lock systems to increase security at their front doors on all four campuses.
The school also installed an intercom system allowing for easy communication between the office and the classrooms. Ireland says she appreciates being able to reach an individual classroom to request a student for early dismissal. She can also simultaneously communicate with all classrooms.
“We’ve used the intercom system once to notify the entire school about a soft lockdown,” she adds. “There was a police problem in the area, and we needed the staff and students to be aware of the possibility of a full lockdown.”
SDS Telecom installed both intercom systems. Dan Holmgren, the owner of SDS Telecom, also installed similar system for the other AmeriSchools’ Arizona campuses.
Related Article: 16 Steps to Better School Front Entrance Security
The schools approached him looking for an intercom solution to notify classrooms with general information or instructions for handling an emergency. The AmeriSchools Academy Yuma North already had an intercom from Aiphone Corp. installed when he began working with the schools. School officials preferred the Aiphone solution because it allowed for either hands-free or handset operation.
“There are times when the administration might have information to share with only a teacher, such as disciplinary problems with a student that shouldn’t be shared openly with the rest of the class,” Holmgren says. “In cases like that, the teacher just picks up the handset when it rings.”
In the summer of 2013, SDS Telecom installed two Aiphone master stations in the administrative office, one intercom unit in each of the nine classrooms and one video intercom at the Phoenix school. Later that summer, Holmgren’s firm installed one master station, 10 classroom phones and one door unit in the Yuma South campus.
The Tucson campus has plans to install a master station, 13 classroom phones and one door control units.
The installations were completed during the summer to minimize classroom disruptions. Holmgren says each campus was a two-day job that was plug-and-play after running cable between the classrooms and office.
Ashley Fox, the principal at the Yuma South campus, says her staff has found two major benefits of the intercom system. The first is the ability to initiate and release monthly emergency lockdown drills. The second benefit is being able to simultaneously or individually reach each of the 10 classrooms with their teachers and 200 students.
She also claims the video intercom had added a valuable security layer, although her school has had no serious security problems.
“The installation of the intercom system has greatly improved the ease of communicating with students and staff to either initiate or release our monthly lockdown drills,” Fox says.
(Patrick V. Fiel, Sr. is an independent security consultant assisting Aiphone Corp., a leading manufacturer of intercommunication and video entry systems- including video intercoms – for the K-12, higher education, industrial/commercial and residential markets. Its North American headquarters is located in Bellevue, Wash. For more information, please visit http://www.aiphone.com/home)
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