False active shooter alarm triggered at Troy school for 3rd time

TROY, Miami County — For the third time in less than five months, someone triggered an active shooter alarm at Troy City Schools by mistake.

>> RELATED: False active shooter alarm triggered at Troy elementary school

The latest one happened at Hook Elementary School Monday morning before most kids started getting to school.

As reported on News Center 7 at 5p.m., Troy City Schools Superintendent Chris Piper told News Center 7 they’re still investigating how Monday’s false active shooter alarm was triggered.

Piper said the district uses a keyboard-based system as one of the ways it activates its active shooter alarms.

>>RELATED: Troy schools on 2-hour delay today after Friday’s false active shooter alarms at high school

It’s a system he said they’ve had for years.

“It used to be that we had it on specific computers around buildings. This year we have it on all computers in all classrooms,” Piper said.

However, Piper says giving more people access means there’s a greater possibility for mistakes like Monday and the two false active shooter alarms triggered in the same day in September at Troy High School.

Students described the panic it created in the fall.

“I ran out of the doors and I saw people throwing their bags and diving and jumping out of windows to get out of the building,” one student told News Center 7.

According to Piper, the district has done several things to make sure this stops happening.

>>RELATED: ‘How was this allowed to happen twice;’ Students, parents concerned after false active shooter alarm

Piper said in the fall a staff member had to hit one key on the keyboard and respond to a prompt on the screen.

Since then, they’ve had training on the software system and have changed how it’s activated.

Piper now says it’s two keys that have to be hit to prompt a larger dialog box on the screen where the default to confirm the alarm is set to “no” instead of “yes.”

“So to trigger the alarm, both keys must be hit. The default must be changed from no to yes and then selected to set the alarm off, and that happened yesterday. How that happened, we are still unsure,” Piper said.

Piper said they need to have a system that is easy to use in an emergency but at the same time difficult to trigger accidentally.

He said one of the things they’re looking at is if they can continue using this keyboard system or if they need to find something different.

©2024 Cox Media Group