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Though violence on Hawaii campuses is rare, the state is preparing to roll out a new alert system for public schools as a way to speed up law enforcement response in an emergency, such as an active shooter situation.

Although Hawaii has only had g incidents at schools since 1988, none of which resulted in a death, according to the Center for Homeland Defense and Security, deadly school shootings on the mainland have perpetuated concerns among community members that one could happen in the islands.

Fights, stabbings and threats are also a concern. Last year, a student at Makaha Elementary School stabbed a classmate with scissors during an argument. Recent threats involved a 12-year-old threatening to in an online post and a 15-year-old posting about entering schools on Hawaii island, Hawaii News Now reported.

The state Department of Law Enforcement entered into a $7 million contract in January with Florida-based software company SaferWatch, which is providing panic buttons to public schools statewide as well as the State Capitol. SaferWatch also has a mobile app, through which users can receive emergency alerts or submit anonymous tips to law enforcement.

The SaferWatch system, while not meant to replace calling 911, offers an alternative for contacting first responders and quickly providing location information without having to dictate an address over the phone, said Jordan Lowe, director of the state Department of Law Enforcement. A similar panic alarm system in use at a school in Barrow County, Georgia, was credited with hastening the police response and possibly saving lives during a in September, according to NBC News.

Every Second Counts

Sen. Karl Rhoads, a member of the Senate Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs Committee, said every second counts in an active shooter situation so a panic alarm system could be advantageous. Rhoads is one of four legislators who began carrying SaferWatch panic buttons this year after receiving death threats.

But Rhoads said he doesn’t want the implementation of such a system to detract from other measures that can help make schools and the community as a whole safer, such as gun control legislation like bans on high-capacity magazines and .50-caliber rifles.

“I’m more inclined to try to ensure that only people who don’t have legal issues or mental health issues can get guns in the first place, I think that’s more useful and effective than turning every school into a fortress,” he said. “But this would sort of be a middle way where you don’t have to turn the school into a fortress, but you still get a really quick response, presumably.”

The system includes stationary buttons for classrooms and offices, portable buttons that can be worn around the neck and mobile buttons that can be activated through the SaferWatch app on cellphones.

When used at schools, only teachers and other authorized personnel would be able to access the panic button feature on their phones to prevent potential misuse by students, said SaferWatch president and CEO Geno Roefaro. The company also uses geofencing to ensure the buttons can only be activated when the user is on campus.

Pressing of the buttons immediately alerts the Department of Law Enforcement’s dispatch center as well as one of two 24/7 SaferWatch monitoring centers in Florida or New Jersey. Holding the button down will also open two-way communication with a dispatcher, though only the portable and mobile phone buttons have that capability, said the department’s executive officer Brandon Asuka.

“A lot of times with 911, you call, you have to give your name, your location,” Asuka said. “If the button gets pressed, it immediately shows the location of where it’s being pushed, so you can start the process of actually dispatching somebody out there.”

The state’s contract with SaferWatch includes six stationary buttons per school as well as one portable button per principal and unlimited use of the SaferWatch app for five years, Asuka said.

The clock will begin on the five-year period for each school once the system is fully installed. The contract also covers portable buttons for the governor, lieutenant governor and state legislators who want to carry one. 

Superintendent Keith Hayashi said the SaferWatch program will be piloted at a high school on Oahu in the coming months. He would not identify the school because he feared it would prompt threats from “folks who might want to test the system out.” He said the school will be revealed once the pilot is finished and SaferWatch is fully implemented. 

Asuka said eventually SaferWatch will be rolled out to all 295 public and charter schools in the state.

“This would sort of be a middle way where you don’t have to turn the school into a fortress, but you still get a really quick response, presumably.”

Sen. Karl Rhoads

Deborah Bond-Upson, a member of Parents for Public Schools and the Hui for Excellence in Education coalition, said the panic buttons could help alleviate security concerns about the increasing trend of bans of cellphones during class, although she wished the state would supply enough stationary panic buttons for every classroom.

“Having a panic button stationary in the classroom and/or having the teacher have it on their phone is one of the things that could make parents more relaxed about having the cellphones out of students’ possession during classroom lessons,” she said.

Tip Service

Another important feature of SaferWatch is an anonymous tip line available via the app or , Lowe said. A was announced on July 3, and a on Oct. 10.

So far, the department has received 204 tips about illegal fireworks, 22 tips about illegal gun ownership and gun crimes and 40 tips about other crimes through the SaferWatch system. Lowe would not say how many of the tips have resulted in an arrest. 

Once SaferWatch is rolled out in the schools, it will also be advertised as a way for members of the school community to report threats and other suspicious activity, Asuka said. 

Currently, Hayashi said the best way to report a threat at school is to notify a trusted employee, call the school’s administration office or call 911. The Department of Education also uses a mobile app called Speak Now for tips about bullying incidents.

Hawaii has some of the strictest gun laws and lowest gun violence rates in the nation, but its schools are not immune to violence.

The most recent shooting at a school in Hawaii occurred on Jan. 28, 2014, when a 17-year-old was shot in the wrist by a Honolulu police officer after pulling a kitchen knife at Roosevelt High School  

In 2011, a 14-year-old was arrested after he picked up a gun he found behind the gym at Highlands Intermediate School in Pearl City, and it accidentally went off. HNN reported the and broke into pieces before striking another student.

The only other shooting incident at a Hawaii school, according to the Center for Homeland Defense and Security’s school shooting safety compendium, occurred on June 30, 1988, at Aiea High School when a shot and injured his summer school teacher.

But Robert Chavez, an English language arts teacher at Nanakuli High and Intermediate School, said worries about the possibility of a school shooting in Hawaii have increased in recent years, largely because of high-profile incidents in other states. He recalled a handful of times his school went into lockdown because of a threat made by a student or an intimidating message found written on a wall.

Fights, Threats And Other Violence

Fighting is another major concern, and a series of violent incidents at Nanakuli High and Intermediate last year sparked discussions about whether Oahu schools should have armed school resource officers. Chavez said policy changes at his school, including the elimination of a 20-minute recess period and increased monitoring of students between classes, has helped reduce the number of fights occurring on campus.

So far this year, at least 20 threats have been reported at state public schools, compared with 59 in the previous school year and 49 the year before that, Department of Education spokeswoman Nanea Ching said. She added that number only reflects incidents in which the department’s communications branch gets involved with messaging families or staff.

The Honolulu Police Department doesn’t track school threats specifically, spokeswoman Michelle Yu said, but she confirmed officers investigated a threat at Castle High School earlier this month. No arrests were made, she said. Yu would not release information about the nature of the threat, but a letter sent to parents and said it had been posted on a bathroom wall.

Chavez said measures like the SaferWatch panic buttons are worth the investment if they even help save one life in the future. But he laments that violence at school is something students and teachers have to think about at all.

“I don’t like that we’ve gotten to a part in America where we have to worry about things like this,” he said.

SaferWatch started focusing on school safety after the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in 2018, according to the company’s president and CEO. A legislative report later found communication failures and a by law enforcement contributed to the severity of the massacre.

Roefaro said SaferWatch is now used in 31 states, not only in schools but also in synagogues, churches, business and government buildings.

Meanwhile, seven states have requiring panic buttons in all public elementary and secondary schools.

Corruption Investigation

SaferWatch this year also became embroiled in the federal corruption investigation into New York Mayor Eric Adams, who was on bribery, campaign finance and conspiracy offenses, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

According to The City, of two top officials in the Adams administration in an attempt to influence them to deploy the emergency alert system in New York City Public Schools.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York did not respond to multiple calls seeking comment about SaferWatch. 

Roefaro said his company is not being investigated. 

“We are absolutely not the target of their investigation,” he said. “That’s the summary of what we can share.” 

A spokesperson for New York City Public Schools, Jenna Lyle, wrote in an email that SaferWatch was piloted in three district schools, but the district decided not to move forward with the company. She would not respond to questions about why the district chose not to continue working with SaferWatch. 

Since the shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School, the use of emergency alarm systems in schools has become more popular, and a different panic alarm system called Centegix was credited with helping improve response times during a shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, in September that left two students and two teachers dead. 

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said the system had been active at the school for about a week before the shooting. All teachers at the school wear badges equipped with panic buttons, and several teachers pressed their buttons during the incident, .

In Hawaii, the Department of Law Enforcement chose SaferWatch in part because of the ability to integrate the platform with existing computer-assisted dispatch and records management systems, Lowe said.

SaferWatch was procured through a cooperative purchasing agreement with the National Association of State Procurement Officials, and the contract was approved by the state Project Advisory Council, a five-member board including Attorney General Anne Lopez.  

Hayashi said he believes the SaferWatch system will help schools be better prepared for emergencies.

“The main thing is that we want to make sure schools are safe for students and employees,” he said. “And that if something were to happen, God forbid, we have processes in place to be able to address that.”

Civil Beat’s education reporting is supported by a grant from Chamberlin Family Philanthropy.