MIDLAND, Texas — Everyone knows technology is not always reliable.
Staff and students alike needed to rely on it during Thursday's lock down at Midland High School but they weren't able to.
"Technology as we all know can be our best friend or it can let us down at times, but because the staff had been trained and practiced on our standard response protocols they did what was necessary," Elana Ladd, MISD Director of Communications said.
Staffers had to communicate the threat of a student with a possible gun on campus by running through the halls.
Instead of mass communication, it was passed through word of mouth due to a faulty intercom system.
Some students say their classrooms had no idea until they saw a police presence on campus.
"If we had the technology that our elementaries have we would've pushed the button and every door would've locked in the entire building. Right now there are 60 entrances and exits to Midland High School," said Jeff Horner, MISD Executive Director of Secondary Education.
The current intercom system is old and MISD officials say it's very pricey to reinstall a new one, costing arounf $420,000 for Midland High.
This price tag does not include an entirely new security and communications system for the district.
"All those systems for our secondary schools was included in the 2019 Bond," James Riggen, MISD COO said.
So instead they're waiting on it to be fixed, which can take anywhere between 2 to 4 weeks. Until then, they'll have to rely on word of mouth.
MISD officials also said had the bond passed, approximately $33 million would have gone to security cameras, access control, classroom technology, and network infrastructure.
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