A new panic button system installed just one week before the deadly massacre that claimed the lives of two students and two teachers Wednesday at a Winder, Georgia, high school likely prevented further bloodshed, a teacher said.
"I actually saw the lockdown initiated before I even heard gunshots," 26-year-old Apalachee High School social studies teacher Stephen Kreyenbuhl told CNN Thursday. The newly-implemented safety protocol "100% saved lives," he said. "I'd recommend it to any school district."
A small button on the back of teachers' Centegix-issued school badges can warn police of an active, on-campus emergency. Four presses of the button alerts administrators, and eight presses notifies local law enforcement.
"The protocols at this school and this system activated today prevented this from being a much larger tragedy," Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey said at a Wednesday night press conference, according to NBC News.
The tragedy allegedly perpetrated by 14-year-old gunman Colt Gray came to an end that morning when the teen willingly surrendered after he was confronted by responding deputies, but not before he purportedly used an AR-style weapon on students and staff at Appalachee High School, resulting in the deaths of Christian Angulo and Mason Schermerhorn, both 14, Christina Irimie, 53, and Richard Aspinwall, 39.
Nine others were injured.
