DOTHAN, Ala. (WDHN) — Carver 9th Grade Academy, Dothan Preparatory Academy, and Dothan High School, the 3 biggest schools in the Dothan City School system, now have a crisis alert system at their fingertips.

“How do we reduce the response times for first responders?” DCS Safety Coordinator Steve Parrish said. “That led us to coming up with an alerting system that was instantaneous, a teacher needs assistance, and maybe sees a suspicious person on the campus. A couple of clicks of a button, a silent alarm will go off and everything shuts down. First responders are on the way.”

The new alert system at Dothan City Schools is supposed to speed up the response time of first responders in a crisis or emergency.

“If you can save one or two minutes off of a response time; if you can avoid that teacher having to find a cell phone to make a phone call, hit a distress button, or send a student and run her to the office to make that notification, you are cutting down on valuable seconds that can save lives,” Parrish said.

This alert system can also be used internally for smaller problems.

Teachers can notify principals, nurses, guidance counselors, or even other teachers.

The goal is still to respond as soon as possible, and also pinpoint the exact location of the problem.

“We directly know where it is, it will allow us to tune in on what the particular problem and maybe stop a lot of problems we may have in the future,” the 7th-grade Assistant Principal at Dothan Preparatory Academy Adrienna Thomas said.

This alert system just started last week when students returned from winter break and, hopefully, it will mean a safer environment going forward.