Since 2018, when Education Week first began to track this harrowing data, there has been over 250 school shootings in the United States, killing 151 people and injuring 429 more. While most of these heinous events last only a few minutes, with the most critical harm often occurring near the beginning of the event, the average response time for police, fire, or EMS services is between 7 and 10 minutes.
Given that every second matters in emergency situations, schools' crisis response plans need the most up-to-date protocols and technologies in place to ensure information and notifications are circulated immediately. With adequate research, planning, and preparation, education facility managers can prevent illness and injury, minimize property damage, and increase survivability when a crisis arises.
Clarity and Consistency Prevent Miscommunication During Emergencies
Schools have different evacuation and lockdown plans to address various emergency situations, and they should take a similarly customized approach to communicating those plans in times of emergency. Research on human behavior in disasters from John Leach, a military survival instructor who researches behavior in extreme environments at the University of Portsmouth, shows that nearly 75% of people in life-threatening circumstances are so bewildered by the situation that they are unable to make decisions that could save their lives.
Based on this data, there is a vital need for clear, consistent, and synchronized messaging to indicate whether students and staff need to evacuate, assemble, or remain where they are during a lockdown, when the ordeal might mentally paralyze them.
Utilizing Visual Notifications for Enhanced Safety
To cascade critical updates, visual cues ensure that not only those deaf or hard of hearing are informed of emergencies and receive directions quickly, but also that messages go through in noisy and busy environments where audible alerts may be hard to understand, such as hallways, cafeterias, and gymnasiums.
Advanced notification technology, such as Primex Notify® InfoBoard™ Displays, brings visual notifications to schools' emergency response plans. InfoBoard Displays are bright, networked, low-power displays that can instantly show critical alerts — LOCKDOWN, LOCKOUT, WEATHER, EVACUATE, or ALL CLEAR — at the press of a button.
Additionally, using the cloud-based OneVue® Software platform, school leaders can customize messages, scroll speed, and text colors to more successfully share urgent updates. This visual messaging solution also includes have auditing capabilities, so after an event is activated and concluded, post-event report analysis is simple.
As a supplemental feature to use during nonemergent times, education facility managers can customize InfoBoard Display messages to ensure students, teachers, and staff are receiving pertinent information like class schedule updates, assembly times, or whether it’s an A or B Day. Visual messaging through InfoBoard Displays helps schools disseminate messages to all reaches of a school or campus in seconds rather than minutes, reaching more people, more quickly — especially in the age of schoolwide cell phone bans.
Whether an intruder, weather emergency, or fire, the mass notifications from Primex Notify InfoBoard Displays help students and staff quickly assess the severity of events and better determine what they need to do to get to safety.
If your school is ready to boost communication, bolster emergency response plans, and strengthen overall school safety, reach out to us today.
This article was originally written in 2020 and updated in April 2026 to reflect current data and content.
