New school mapping grants bring the wisdom of the battlefield to school emergencies

In this April 20, 1999, file photo unidentified young women head to a library near Columbine High School where students and faculty members were evacuated after two gunmen went on a shooting rampage in the school in the southwest Denver suburb of Littleton, Colo. (AP Photo/Kevin Higley, File)

With multiple doors, corridors and staircases — not to mention some with nearly 5,000 students on campus — an active school shooter presents the most challenging kind of circumstance for emergency responders to find where help is needed.

And seconds can mean the difference between life and death if the emergency involves bleeding and trauma.

“What you’re trying to do in an event like this is cut through the fog of confusion as much as possible,” said Alex Carney, chief operating officer for Critical Response Group (CRG).

The veteran-owned New Jersey-based company has already brought some of the insight and wisdom gained from raiding enemy territory in Iraq and Afghanistan to improving school safety at several Florida school districts.

And that insight is about to reach even further.

Inspired by the work and recommendations of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission, legislation passed last Session makes $14 million available to the state’s public schools so that there’s no need to stop and ask for directions in an emergency.

The legislation (HB 301) calls for all 3,697 of the state’s public school buildings to be mapped out in a format accessible to any kind of first responder whether that responder is a paramedic, a firefighter, law enforcement or a 911 operator. And whether they know anything about the school building they are responding to, or not. 

Schools are being encouraged to apply for a grant that would break down every inch of every school building into a grid so no one has to stop and think about which way the north side of the building is and what it means if the gym is in the southwest corridor. The mapping mimics what ground troops get when they are dropped into enemy territory, Carney explains.

“So when they say, ‘Park in grid C2 and go into Door A,’ everybody knows exactly what Grid C2 and Door A is,” said Carney, who was part of the Marines Special Operations Command, doing raids in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.

Florida joins 24 other states that have invested in digital mapping at schools, according to a staff analysis of the bill.

The grant requires more than just making a really detailed map, though.

The vendor that undertakes this mapping project under the grant must also have it in a format that can be universally accessed, no matter what software an agency uses, Carney said.

He took Collier County schools, for example The district, in addition to those in Hendry, Highlands, St. Johns and Seminole counties has already undertaken the project.

“If you go to Collier County, you’ll find that every sheriff’s deputy in Collier County has access to these maps through their cell phone because they have a cell phone app that they use to track officers and also allows them to access mapping data,” Carney said. “If you went to the 911 Center in Collier County, you would find that the 911 Center has access to all the school maps in Collier County through the software platforms that they use to geolocate a 911 call. And, if you went to the real-time crime center, the intelligence Fusion Center in Collier County, you can see there they have access to the school maps.”