Originally posted on IdahoEdNews.org on December 8, 2025

MERIDIAN, ID – West Ada employees will soon be wearing high-tech security badges that can report emergencies with a few clicks of a button.

Trustees on Monday approved a $1 million contract with Atlanta-based company Centegix to purchase “CrisisAlert” badges for staff members at all 59 campuses. After the initial investment, the contract includes annual payments of $471,000. West Ada is the first district in Idaho to contract with Centegix, but the company operates in 47 states and covers 84% of public schools in Georgia, according to its website.

Over a 35-year career in education, Star Elementary teacher Carmi Scheller said she’s seen how school security has changed from small safety concerns to mass casualty events in places that should be safe. She said she applauds giving the security badges to all staff.

“This is absolutely the kind of proactive approach to responding to any incident on our campuses that all staff should have the responsibility to wield,” Scheller said.

The badges are one piece of a two-part campus security plan. It will take the board several meetings to approve a policy for a “campus sentinel” program.

West Ada already contracts local police officers to act as school resource officers, but not enough to cover each school.  Sentinels would provide an additional layer of security. The district would employ former, retired and current law enforcement officers to act as a visible deterrent to violence. They would carry concealed, holstered handguns underneath plain clothes, but would wear a sash in the case of emergencies.

Lt. Shawn Harper of the Meridian Police Department spoke to trustees about both programs, but focused on campus sentinels. He said they would look like any other staff member.

“They’re a welcoming face,” Harper said. “High fives, whatever it may be. They’re going to look and work closely with staff, so they become one in the same. When needed, obviously, because of their training and experience, if they recognize things that are outside of the ordinary or things happen where they need to act, they have the sash and they have the capabilities, if — worst case scenario — to use lethal force.“

The badges

Most teachers wear their school identification badge on a lanyard around their neck. The security badges can be worn in the same way.

Staff members can push the panic button on the badge three times to report a medical or behavioral emergency. School security staff would instantly receive a notification. Pushing the button eight or more times would trigger a high-level security alert, locking down the entire building and notifying law enforcement. Through an app, officers could see a map of the building and exact location of the activated badge.

Harper said that feature will help police officers respond during emergencies.

“With this technology, it is going to better assist us in our response on where to go when we get to that campus,” he said. “You’re going to get a more rapid response, and you’re going to get our officers on scene dealing with whatever those problems are in a shorter amount of time.”

District spokesperson Michelle Edmonds showed one of the wearable badges to EdNews. Firmly pressing the button makes a clicking sound. It’s hard to press by mistake, as it takes some pressure. Pressing the button three times causes the badge to buzz and vibrate.

“The design, which you can see here, minimizes accidental alerts with an inset button that requires very purposeful activation,” Chief Academic Officer Marcus Myers told trustees while holding a badge.

The district wrote a $1 million federal grant to pay for the badges, Edmonds said, but it has not yet been accepted.

“We’ll see if we get it,” she said.

Trustee David Binetti said pushing a button over and over until “the cavalry arrives” is easy. He said he once missed a flight and had to book a new flight on his phone, but he was so stressed out it was hard to text.

“And I’m thinking to myself, I just missed a flight,” Binetti said. “What if you’re in a frantic situation?”

Campus sentinels

During the public comment period, West Ada parent and former sergeant for the Los Angeles County Sheriff spoke to the board about his experience responding to an active shooter on Nov. 14, 2019, at Saugus High School. Two students died. He supports both the wearable badges and campus sentinels.

“Our SROs are awesome, but they can’t be there all the time,” Gillis said. “We have to have another layer of safety and security for our students and our staff members, and that’s for all of them across the board.”

In an interview, he said campus sentinels would turn soft targets into hard targets.

While the sentinels would be prepared for an active shooter, Harper said they would be more likely to respond to mental health, behavioral or medical emergencies. The vetting and hiring process would be intensive, including mental health screenings. The sentinels would need to enjoy being around kids and would become familiar faces at school buildings.

Trustee Rene Ozuna asked Harper how sentinels would respond to some of those daily incidents, or a fight among students.

“They don’t have pepper spray, they don’t have tasers, they don’t have handcuffs, right?” Ozuna said. “They have a loaded weapon. What does that look like? And what’s the responsibility? What are the expectations?”

Harper said they would respond the same way as any staff member would.

“They’re going to have alert technology that they can use to alert a campus safety team to respond to what that low-level fight might look like, or to what that behavior incident might look like,”  Harper said. “We would expect them to do the same and allow that building team to respond that way.”

New policies typically take three readings to approve. The board will continue discussing the sentinel program in January.

The district is not sure yet how many sentinels they would employ or how much they would be paid. But they would be West Ada employees paid on an hourly basis, either full time or part time, according Edmonds.  The district has an online survey to gather feedback.