Why not make use of this free system-

I read your "Our View" on Sept. 23 praising the new emergency notification systems recently purchased by Culpeper County Public Schools ($20,000 annual cost) and Germanna Community College ($3,000 annually).

     What you failed to do was some investigative reporting.

     Many of these so-called Emergency Alert Systems being sold to schools and universities do not have the capability to notify students and faculty immediately within the first few minutes of an unfolding incident.

     Many of the systems only have the capability of making about 12 to 15 individual notifications in one minute. When you are talking hundreds of possible notifications needing to be sent and received - minutes count.

For example, many parents or students may need multiple numbers or cell phones to be enrolled in order to ensure the best coverage of notification.

For example - let's say there are two numbers per person. Now let's do some simple math. With 2,000 people  enrolled, that means 4,000 numbers which need to be notified. At 15 calls per minute, that's more than four hours to make all contacts. This is not an emergency notification system.

Too bad more people didn't investigate this shortfall. There is a free Emergency Notification System available to law enforcement agencies. Many of the surrounding jurisdictions have been provided information on this system but apparently word hasn't gone full circle.

More information on this program can be found at achildismissing.org (under their link "New Programs for Law Enforcement"). This notification system is activated only by law enforcement and has the capacity of sending out 1,000 calls in one minute. Colleges, high schools, middle schools and elementary schools are eligible for enrollment. While it is not a program that will deliver absenteeism messages, it is designed for crisis and emergency situations.

I agree with the comment in the editorial that, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" but make sure your prevention methods are designed to actually cure what 'ails' you and for heaven's sake, if someone is offering you the cure for free why not take advantage of it-