False Active Shooter Alarm At Piedmont High School Turns Into Valuable Lesson For The District

A Piedmont High School employee accidentally pressed a panic button this week, causing an active shooter alert to be sent out to staff and parents.

District officials said they learned a lot from this false alarm, and it's all thanks to the Rave Panic Button app.

Piedmont High School is one of several Oklahoma schools that uses the app, which alerts emergency personnel of a threat with the push of a button. But what happens when the button is pressed by mistake?

This week, Piedmont High School got a lockdown drill it never planned on last Tuesday around 9:30 AM.

"We had an employee accidentally press the active assailant button in the rave mobile app," District spokesperson Riley Thomas said. "That immediately pinged every employee's phone at Piedmont High School telling them that there was an active shooter in the building."

A false alarm turned into a valuable lesson.

"They didn't know this was an accident in that moment," Thomas said of everyone involved in the response.

Students, staff, and emergency personnel sprang into action.

"We were thoroughly impressed with the way that they acted and reacted by making sure they followed all of our lockdown procedures," Thomas said.

Thomas says the district got to see just how vital the Rave mobile app, truly is.

"I think it took about 90 seconds for Piedmont police and fire to be here whenever we clicked that button," Thomas said. "This app really allowed us to react in as quick a manner as possible."

Thankfully, Thomas said the district now has the opportunity to reflect on the situation and learn from it.

"How can we do better moving forward and look at what we did really well," she said.

Piedmont Public Schools says Rave has become an essential part of its school safety plans, and should be at every school.