Students safer with notification system
The North Brunswick school district and police department should be commended on their joint effort to purchase an emergency notification system.

The system will be able to send out over 5,000 messages to home phones, cell phones, direct work lines and pagers, and eventually e-mail addresses and text message-capable phones, within 15 minutes.

Considering there are about 6,000 children in the district, numbers show that parents would know of a critical situation almost immediately.

Second, township officials quickly worked to resolve a problem of miscommunication that resulted during a lockdown at the township high school in April. There was a public outcry from parents that inaccurate or misleading information was provided while their children were kept inside the building for hours because someone threatened to "shoot up" the school.

This type of response to parents is an assurance that higherups are listening and are cognizant of the importance of community input.

Third, the continual pursuit by the police department for grant funding is outstanding. Superintendent Brian Zychowski said the notification system would have been purchased regardless, but receiving $84,000 with a school district match allowed the system to be completely covered. In addition, the funds went toward additional school cameras and metal detecting wands, items that proved to be effective but insufficient in number in April.

In addition, a bonus to the system is its implementation in everyday life, since the school district can e-mail fliers to parents about workshops,meetings or district events. The phone system can also be used to solicit surveys. The township, for a fee, can also tap into the system for its own community alerts. It's as if the system is paying for itself, twice over. Although it seems no one is safe these days, parents can rest assured knowing the township is doing everything it can to give them peace of mind that their children are protected during the school day. There is probably nothing scarier than the unknown, and when you know a friend or loved one is in the middle of a tragic situation, a few moments spent not knowing their whereabouts can feel like an eternity.

Although this new system will not be a miraculous end to emergencies, it will certainly alleviate the fears of parents once they become aware of a situation. It will be a relief to know their children are being handled in the safest way possible, and that town officials are doing the best they can to be open, honest and transparent in their relay of information.

Although we hope the only time this systemis used is to send out informative letters, it is good to know that in the future, the miscommunication experienced during the lockdown situation of last year will most likely not be repeated.