WEBVTT 00:00:10.164 --> 00:00:18.164 All I could think about was my little brother because he was in a school that could have been affected 00:00:18.164 --> 00:00:24.164 and I just had no way of knowing and that sense of uncertainty and unknowing 00:00:24.164 --> 00:00:28.164 and not being able to reach my loved ones. 00:00:28.164 --> 00:00:32.164 That was truly frightening. 00:00:32.164 --> 00:00:34.164 Manny grew up in the Dominican Republic, 00:00:34.164 --> 00:00:38.164 a place where gun violence wasn't really part of the vocabulary. 00:00:38.164 --> 00:00:46.164 His family then moved him to Orlando, Florida, and the first thing he learned about American schools was how to hide. 00:00:46.164 --> 00:00:56.164 And then all of a sudden I'm in middle school and we're doing drills to practice for when somebody is threatening the school. 00:00:56.164 --> 00:00:58.164 We're running into the auditorium. 00:00:58.164 --> 00:01:00.164 We're hiding under desks. 00:01:00.164 --> 00:01:04.164 It made it seem like all of this could happen any day. 00:01:04.164 --> 00:01:06.164 There was a school shooting at my school. 00:01:06.164 --> 00:01:08.164 I was thankfully not there that day. 00:01:08.164 --> 00:01:11.164 I think the people there were really lucky. 00:01:11.164 --> 00:01:13.164 It should never get to that point. 00:01:13.164 --> 00:01:16.164 We should be able to prevent it in the first place. 00:01:16.164 --> 00:01:20.164 As soon as somebody enters a safe bubble, they should be stopped. 00:01:20.164 --> 00:01:25.164 Luis was a sophomore in high school in Florida when the Parkland shooting happened. 00:01:25.164 --> 00:01:30.164 He didn't feel it right away, but then he got home and he saw his parents' faces. 00:01:30.164 --> 00:01:34.164 I was a sophomore in high school and I was in my classroom. 00:01:34.164 --> 00:01:37.164 You know, at the time, I didn't really know what to make of it. 00:01:37.164 --> 00:01:45.164 It didn't connect with me on any sort of level until I got home and I saw the reaction from my parents. 00:01:45.164 --> 00:01:47.164 They were worried about what was going on. 00:01:47.164 --> 00:01:55.164 And it was at that moment that, you know, I started to picture myself in that situation. 00:01:55.164 --> 00:02:00.164 And the terror of what they likely faced walking down those halls. 00:02:00.164 --> 00:02:03.164 After that event, there's just no longer an assumption of safety. 00:02:03.164 --> 00:02:06.164 Now, safety is something that you have to think about. 00:02:06.164 --> 00:02:13.164 When there's that level of danger presented to you every day, you become desensitized. 00:02:13.164 --> 00:02:21.164 You can only cling on to the thought of, "It didn't happen to me today, so maybe it won't happen to me tomorrow." 00:02:21.164 --> 00:02:24.164 And that's no way to live. 00:02:27.164 --> 00:02:41.164 So, in order for me to properly test this entire system and then be able to repeat it, I have to put sticky notes everywhere so that I remind myself of the absolute position of those tags. 00:02:41.164 --> 00:02:44.164 This is where the tags started. 00:02:46.164 --> 00:02:50.164 Our system is meant to not be present. 00:02:50.164 --> 00:02:51.164 It's something you put on. 00:02:51.164 --> 00:02:59.164 Whenever you put on a watch or whenever you put on a pin on your shirt, five seconds later, you forget you wear it. 00:02:59.164 --> 00:03:06.164 Our entire system is supposed to function invisibly to you, to the student, to the staff, to the parents. 00:03:07.164 --> 00:03:13.164 The wearable is a unique identifier that plugs you into our security grid. 00:03:13.164 --> 00:03:21.164 It is the physical component of our system that helps ensure during the lockdown all students are accounted for. 00:03:22.164 --> 00:03:27.164 We will stop you as soon as you even think of getting into our campus. 00:03:28.164 --> 00:03:31.164 You are being proactive, not reactive. 00:03:31.164 --> 00:03:34.164 Well, best case scenario is that it shouldn't have to change our day to day, right? 00:03:34.164 --> 00:03:36.164 They shouldn't have to do anything different. 00:03:36.164 --> 00:03:40.164 They can just do their job and live their life. 00:03:40.164 --> 00:03:44.164 And best case scenario is they never have to interact with us. 00:03:45.164 --> 00:03:47.164 My name is Tara Aretzian. 00:03:47.164 --> 00:03:49.164 I am a special ed teacher. 00:03:49.164 --> 00:03:53.164 Tara Aretzian has been an educator in Maine for nearly 18 years. 00:03:53.164 --> 00:03:56.164 She has run more lockdown drills than she can count. 00:03:56.164 --> 00:03:58.164 And this is what it looks like. 00:03:58.164 --> 00:03:59.164 A lockdown drill. 00:03:59.164 --> 00:04:00.164 Okay. 00:04:00.164 --> 00:04:05.164 So the principal will come on Intercom and say we are practicing a lockdown drill. 00:04:05.164 --> 00:04:09.164 And so the teachers have to lock the door, shut the lights off. 00:04:09.164 --> 00:04:21.164 The students are to go to the designated lockdown area, according to the colors on the floor, which are hidden from all windows accessible from inside the building. 00:04:21.164 --> 00:04:22.164 Sometimes it's stressful. 00:04:22.164 --> 00:04:27.164 Like coming into school the other day before our drill, I was like, okay, I have to have this conversation. 00:04:27.164 --> 00:04:34.164 I think about the group of kids that I have during that period and just like the different dynamics of the students that we have. 00:04:34.164 --> 00:04:42.164 On October 25th, 2023, a gunman killed 18 people in Lewiston, Maine, three miles from Tara's school. 00:04:42.164 --> 00:04:50.164 It wasn't a school shooting, but the ripples of it affected the community so much that the impact of that event came to school anyway. 00:04:50.164 --> 00:04:52.164 The sense was very solemn. 00:04:52.164 --> 00:04:56.164 There was a lot of, you know, families that were affected. 00:04:56.164 --> 00:05:00.164 A lot of students had families that were affected and there was a lot of hugs. 00:05:00.164 --> 00:05:01.164 There was a lot of tears. 00:05:01.164 --> 00:05:07.164 Tyler, Luis and Manny told Tara about their technology and what it would mean for her school. 00:05:07.164 --> 00:05:16.164 Being from a community already so deeply affected by gun violence, they felt she and the rest of her community would be a prime candidate for the student dot. 00:05:16.164 --> 00:05:19.164 I mean, I just think it would help expedite things. 00:05:19.164 --> 00:05:21.164 It would help save time. 00:05:21.164 --> 00:05:26.164 I think it would help admin understand like, okay, they have so many kids in each classroom. 00:05:26.164 --> 00:05:29.164 Even if you have to like grab another kid, they still know where they're at. 00:05:29.164 --> 00:05:37.164 And it would help be able to communicate to parents and families that your kid is safe, your kid is here. 00:05:37.164 --> 00:05:44.164 Being able to take something that would take 30 minutes to take five minutes is just going to help save a kid's life. 00:05:44.164 --> 00:05:49.164 Having that time is going to definitely save lives. 00:05:49.164 --> 00:06:04.164 If I was 15 years old again and in a classroom, I wouldn't be having to sit in that gym locker room hearing about the tragedies that just occurred and feeling the fear that that brought. 00:06:04.164 --> 00:06:08.164 I would know that I was safe. 00:06:08.164 --> 00:06:14.164 I would know that there is something bigger watching out for me. 00:06:14.164 --> 00:06:24.164 I am most proud of the fact that I can tell my nieces, my little cousins, that I'm the one working to keep them safe. 00:06:24.164 --> 00:06:31.164 It's important that when a parent drops off their kids at school and lets go off their hand, that they know it's safe in ours.