VACAVILLE, Calif. — Horrific scenes of school shootings continue to unfold across the country leaving devastated families and communities trying to build a safer future.
During an active shooter situation, students and parents rely on teachers and staff to stay calm, call 911 and put the school on lockdown. Every second matters because every second could mean saving a life.
Kairos Public Schools in Vacaville says there’s a new generation of school safety, and they’re making its campus safer with just a push of a button.
“Each of our workshop spaces have panic buttons. We also have them in specific offices for a staff,” said Kairos Public Schools co-founder Leslie Shebley. “All they have to do is lift this up and hit the button, and it locks the facility down and begins to notify the police.”
As you walk the halls of Kairos Public Schools’ newest school building, the high ceilings and natural light floorplan is a breath of fresh air. There's one thing you don’t see right away, but it's there — security.
"On our phones, we can literally push ‘active shooter,’ and it's going to send an alert to every single person on the phone,” said Kairos Public Schools co-founder Jared Austin. "That sends law enforcement immediately coming into our direction. We can deactivate everyone's key card so that if someone were to hurt a staff member and try to access their key cards, they would all be deactivated.”
Loren Dougherty, owner of Alpha Alarm & Audio, installed many of the security features at the school.
"This campus in particular has cameras inside and out and they have AI," said Dougherty.
He shows how the school’s AI cameras can filter people by what they were wearing, and license plate readers create a database pulling vehicles make, model and color.
While Kairos broke ground on their newest building, a school halfway across the country caused them to rethink every detail about their new school’s safety.
“I would say what really changed everything was Uvalde,” said Austin.
He says, as a parent, it's heartbreaking. From an early age, he’s had to speak to his own children about what to do in the event there's ever a shooting at school.
“It's really hard as a parent to say I've had to say that to my five-year-old or my four-year-old, and then hope that they get it,” he said.
Shebley, who is also a parent, knows what it feels like to see families, teachers and communities crying on TV after a major tragedy.
“We don't want that to happen, so we allow that emotion to spur us forward to say, ‘OK, what can we do to do everything possible to keep our kids safe,’” she said.
This August, TK through eighth grade students will be in the new Kairos building. Their motto is to focus on safety, so families can focus on learning.
“I really try not to go to a fear place and it's hard as a parent,” said Kerry, a parent of a Kairos student. “I feel that the choices that we've made and where we put our kid has given me a greater security."
Her daughter, Julia, has attended Kairos Public Schools since it opened.
"I feel pretty safe here too. I know all the staff. I know all my teachers, and I trust them,” said Julia. “It's a big deal to be able to do that because sometimes you can't ... I just really love this place."
Kairos has spent over $150,000 on security technology for their newest school. Austin says one of the biggest frustrations is the lack of funding for school security.
“When it comes down to the actual children that are coming into the campus, there's no funds allocated specifically for that purpose. We have to rely on the generosity of grants and grant writers and different things like that to get those types of funds, or just be committed to using our general funds towards that purpose,” said Austin.
Shebley agrees, adding another important element is having the right people at the table to discuss school security.
“If we can kind of help spur that change and make other educators, other politicians even thinking about earmarking monies for schools to implement these kinds of things. Maybe all that is worth it, and the money that we spent is nothing in comparison to what it could do in the future,” said Shebley.
