As we’ve recently explored in one of our previous blog articles, schools all over the country have opened back up amongst the still ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has just hit its six month mark, claiming over 200,000 American lives, wiping out millions of jobs, and fundamentally changing the way our society functions and interacts. Face-to-face power lunches have become zoom meetings from the living room couch. Live concerts and entertainment have morphed into a strange reality of live streaming (also from the living room couch). Classrooms full of rambunctious children have disappeared, leaving desperate teachers alone with their webcams to create engaging, virtual lesson plans, while simultaneously transforming their physical learning environments to meet social distancing guidelines and sanitation standards for their now smaller class sizes. There’s no doubt about it: COVID-19 ripped the rug out from under us and killed the everyday, comforting societal routine that Americans have lived with our entire lives. In order to gain back even a semblance of normalcy, US leaders debated for many weeks on the best ways to re-open schools at all levels in a safe way, despite the national infection rate refusing to slow down or decline as we inched toward fall. Well, we are officially fully into fall, and schools at all levels are operating under many strange new guidelines recommended by the CDC, some of which include:
Maintain healthy environments (e.g. regularly cleaning and disinfecting frequently touched surfaces)
Communicate, educate, and reinforce appropriate hygiene and social distancing practices in ways that are developmentally appropriate for students, teachers, and staff
Develop a proactive plan for when a student or staff member tests positive for COVID-19
Develop a plan with state and local health department to conduct contact tracing in the event of a positive case
Implement multiple mitigation strategies (e.g. social distancing, masks, hand hygiene, etc)
+ many more
Like it or not, this is the new reality for the 2020-2021 school year, and quite possibly into 2022. This is a compromise between keeping our children and families safe and getting back to some version of our everyday lives. But the virus isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, so the sooner school administrators can lock down strategies and tools to successfully implement these new rules, the faster our country can finally collectively slow the spread of infection and eventually transition back into some semblance of normal functionality. Enter: Monarch.
Monarch’s cloud-based video security solutions can be seamlessly implemented throughout entire school districts to manage and monitor students’ health and safety. Offering a specialized, new “COVID-19 Response Suite,” Monarch provides every security solution schools need to keep their campuses safe and in regulation during this pandemic:
Contact tracing with Face Search
Crowd notifications
People heatmaps
Motion plotting
Custom schedules for students and teachers
What makes Monarch different from its competition is its cutting-edge AI capabilities. Where other security camera systems simply record and retain footage, Monarch’s security cameras record, retain footage for up to a year, and provide powerful and insightful analytics, facial recognition and search features, and one-step footage file sharing via email or SMS, all from one convenient access point.
But the health crisis that has been sweeping the globe for the past six months is only one reason to consider outfitting school facilities with Monarch’s powerful, cloud-based video security solutions. Since 2009, at least 180 K-12 schools in America have experienced a school shooting. This is a crisis that has exploded with the advancement of the internet and social media sharing, and a closer look at the numbers compiled by CNN reveals two disturbing and sobering truths: school shootings in the US are increasing, and no type of community is spared. These shootings have occurred in classrooms, at homecoming games, in crowded hallways, and everywhere in between; everywhere your child is supposed to be made to feel safe and taken care of. While school shootings disproportionately affect people of color in urban-set schools, CNN has found that mass shootings at schools are more likely to occur at white, suburban schools.
No matter what the setting, the perpetrator, or the motive looks like, schools in 2020 need to prepare themselves and take the necessary precautions to minimize the imminent threat of gun violence on campuses. So how can Monarch help?
Monarch provides schools with all-in-one, cloud-managed physical security to deliver visibility and immediate action at any scale. If a person with a gun enters the school and is captured by Monarch’s security cameras, powerful facial and object recognition software can immediately send alerts to administrators, cutting down the time dramatically to take protective action. Not only can administrators receive instant notice of such a threat, but they can then immediately share the live footage from multiple cameras with emergency personnel via SMS or email to further reduce the response time, AND close and lock all outfitted doors with the push of a button. More features include:
A Simple Setup
No NVRs, no DVRs, no complex configurations - just a single PoE connection
Cameras come online and self-configure in minutes
All footage is stored and self-maintained onboard each camera
Quick Incident Resolution
Find footage in seconds with powerful filters for faces, clothing color, vehicle type and more
Easily share controlled access to any camera with emergency personnel
Receive proactive alerts for significant activity
Easy Management
Cameras update automatically with latest security and feature enhancements
Access any camera across all sites from a centralized platform, available on desktop and mobile
Designate user-based roles across your organization to ensure proper access
As technology advances and allows society to make awesome leaps and bounds, it’s comforting to know that it has evolved to the point where it can literally save our lives with such little effort. The key behind this security camera product line is Monarch’s powerful AI feature that is constantly surveying and learning its environment to the point where it can intercept an outside threat almost instantly. Whether you’re looking at the problem of school security from the lens of a pandemic, a school shooter, or any other type of threat, Monarch provides some peace of mind by allowing schools to manage and get ahead of such events. Children are the future, and their daily protection should be the priority of any educational institution, and Monarch has the proper capabilities to secure their health and safety successfully and seamlessly.
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