With almost every year bringing more shootings at educational facilities from grade school to college, the need for instant campus-wide communication has become apparent. How does university officials or police notify students of a dangerous situation? How do schools and day cares contact parents for emergency pick-up? SMS messaging offers the best way to reach parties in an emergency situation.
Consider for a moment these astounding stats on cell and text use:
- 86% of Americans owns a cell phone
- 97% of all text messages are opened
- 83% of text messages are opened within one hour
These are pretty astounding numbers that emphasize a communication channel that is untapped in the education community. Now think how important it is for the messages below to be relayed and received instantly:
Example #1
Subject: Child Care Alert
Mesg: There’s a Level 4 snow emergency. Children will be released at noon for pick-up.
Example #2
Subject: University Alert
Mesg: Unarmed rape suspect at large. Please be cautious & travel in groups > 2.
While instant emergencies can benefit from SMS messaging, the more low-key notifications can also take advantage of text. School closings or delays, national security alerts, flu vaccines times and locations or even safety tips and reminders.
The world is changing. Day cares exist. Dangerous situations arise. And there are a variety of ways to communicate. It’s important that educational groups have a communication plan in place in case of emergencies. Waiting until a situation arise could be frustrating and even dangerous. Text messaging offers an easy way to convey important messages in a timely fashion and should be included in their communications.