COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Lori Alhadeff, CEO of Make Our Schools Safe, said it is “frustrating” to see delays in school safety legislature.
Alhadeff knows the importance of bettering school security firsthand; her 14-year-old daughter, Alyssa, was killed on Feb. 14, 2018, in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida. Alhadeff and her husband founded Make Our Schools Safe in Alyssa’s honor and have been collaborating with Ohio legislators to pass Alyssa’s Law.
Alyssa’s Law, enacted in 10 states, has teachers and staff wear silent panic buttons that alert emergency services in case of a threat or medical emergency. Sen. Michele Reynolds (R-Canal Winchester) introduced Alyssa’s Law in September 2024 alongside Alhadeff and reintroduced it this year. She said she plans to prioritize the bill as legislators return to session. See previous coverage of Alyssa’s Law in the video player above.
“It’s extremely important that we get these panic buttons in our schools as quickly as possible,” Alhadeff said. “Unfortunately, school shootings continue to happen, so we need to find ways to mitigate risk and loss, and by having these wearable panic buttons, it’s an amazing layer of school safety protection.”
In February, Reps. Angela King (R-Celina) and Melanie Miller (R-Ashland) introduced House Bill 106 to create a pilot program for panic alert systems. Unlike Reynolds’ bill, this would not require all schools to implement them but instead allocates $25 million for a trial.
Both bills were referred to committee in February but have received little action since then. Reynolds said the bills went to Finance Committee, which was preoccupied with the biennial state budget. The budget had a hard deadline in June and legislators have been on recess since, but she’s hopeful the bill will pass before the end of the year.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, 170 kids under 11 have been killed by gun violence, and 357 have been injured this year alone. For teens ages 12 through 17, 720 have been killed and 2,042 have been injured.
Gun Violence Archive tracks any documented gun-related incident that occurs on school property when students, staff or faculty are present. For instance, the data includes the arrest of a Pickerington student who brought a gun to school in his car, although it was not fired.
Alhadeff said she believes her daughter’s life, and the lives of 16 other students killed in Parkland, could have been saved if the school had panic buttons. She said once the button is pushed, it sends out a mass notification to law enforcement, medics and the rest of the school. This allows emergency services to get on the scene without delay and ensures the rest of the school can begin safety protocols.
At the Apalachee High School shooting in September 2024, which killed four and injured nine, officials said 26 teachers pressed their panic buttons. The first report of a threat came at 10:20 a.m., and the suspect was in custody by 10:30 a.m.
“Help was able to get there faster, not only to take down the shooter, but to help those nine people that were shot, and those people did live. So this does work,” Alhadeff said.
She said the buttons can also be lifesaving in medical emergencies. She said in Broward County Public Schools in Florida, the sixth-largest district in the country, used the panic button over 1,000 times in the first month for medical emergencies.
According to a state fiscal analysis of Alyssa’s Law from 2024, implementing panic buttons in all Ohio schools would cost between $60.1 million and $83.5 million in the first year, largely due to one-time expenses. For buttons at all of Ohio’s traditional, community and vocational districts, it would cost between $26.7 million and $33.4 million annually.
Reynolds’ bill includes a state funding mandate, as she said not all districts will have the resources to implement security systems. Reynolds said she plans to push the bill to pass this year, and is hopeful it will have bipartisan support.
“It’s not a gun suppression bill, but it is something that allows us to respond because we know seconds matter,” Reynolds said. “I think this is something that we can get done in a bipartisan fashion to help us be more safe in our schools.”
Alhadeff hopes this legislation will become the standard nationwide, like fire alarms. She said Rep. Burgess Owens (R-Utah) plans to file a federal bill in the coming weeks to implement Alyssa’s Law.
