HIGHLAND PARK – Police arrived at Northwood Junior High School shortly after dismissal on Tuesday, Feb. 2, in response to a BluePoint alarm that was activated. Since the alarm system is designed to alert the presence of an armed intruder, students were gathered in safe locations while armed police officers searched the building, according to an email sent to parents.
No intruder was found and on Tuesday night the administration believed a student had pulled the alarm, Principal Sandra Arreguin stated in the email. “NSSD112 takes this violation very seriously, and the student or students involved will be identified,” she wrote.
Daily North Shore spoke to John Fuhrer, director of operations and facilities. He confirmed that an unidentified student pulled the alarm after the BluePoint systems were installed in schools this week.
As a result, the District 112 schools will have drills every morning working from north to south in Highland Park. “We’re going to have a debriefing with the police to see how it went at Northwood, and we’ll also meet with BluePoint Alert Solutions,” Fuhrer added.
Fuhrer explained the system features will enable all district level administration including the principal, assistant principal and school nurse to immediately text each other, and the police the location of an intruder.
“The alarm notifies everyone in the building through the intercom system, which allows people to respond and be aware,” he said. “The system pushes out alerts to your phone that provide a map where the device was pulled.”
Since Northwood Junior High and Wayne Thomas Elementary schools are adjacent, if the alarm goes off at one school, then the school next door will immediately be notified as a safety precaution.
BluePoint was part of the district’s summer project, after a safety audit was conducted a few years ago, but there were operational questions and improvements that caused delays. Fuhrer explained that one of the reasons the alarm system was chosen was due to its flexibility in the event the March referendum is passed. “If we close school ‘X’ we can take these components and reuse them. It’s very intuitive to protect our buildings 24/7 during school tournaments,” he said.
“Our district is trying to be sensitive to what’s happening in the world by protecting people and having police officers onsite,” he added.
School spokesperson Steven Clay provided a link to a video that the principals from Lincoln and Red Oak schools made for students about the new alarms: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tJa3kXPRQ8.