Nassau County and a Manhattan private school are testing a new emergency-response “panic button” inspired by the Sandy Hook school massacre.
The system, called School Safety Response, provides an instant link between schools and police and fire departments through an app installed on teachers’ smartphones.
The Rudolf Steiner School on East 79th Street and Nassau County’s Boards of Cooperative Educational Services are piloting the program, which costs from $8,000 to $20,000 annually.
The app allows school staffers to touch a red “SOS” button on their phones in crisis situations, at which point an exact GPS location is sent to an emergency-response center, where a team can listen to what’s happening live at the scene.
Once the button is pushed, other school staff with the app are notified with instructions such as “lock down” or “evacuate.”
Meanwhile, emergency staffers immediately feed the information to local authorities.
“When we first get an alert, we don’t say anything — we listen,” said David Ruby, CEO of GEOS, the firm behind the app. “We don’t want to give someone away unless they talk to us first.”
GEOS, which has coordinated 4,000 rescues internationally on land or sea, created the school app following the Newtown tragedy in December 2012, Ruby told The Post.
The app can be used outside the classroom, including on field trips, and allows school staff to communicate with the emergency center via text message.
A Steiner School spokesman said the system “bolsters our total security plan” and “provides our entire community with peace of mind.”