Alarm bill known as "Avonte's Law" passes City Council - NY Daily News

[realizm]

 

BY ERIN DURKIN NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Thursday, July 24, 2014, 5:33 PM

 

A bill designed to prevent tragedies like the death of autistic teen Avonte Oquendo by installing alarms on school doors passed the City Council Thursday.

 

Dubbed “Avonte’s Law” after the Queens teen who slipped unnoticed out of his school, the bill requires alarms to be installed at elementary and special education schools where the Department of Education and NYPD find that they would boost safety

 

DOE will have to study all its schools and submit a report detailing which ones will get alarms and how quickly they’ll be installed by next spring.

 

The measure, which passed unanimously, will “give parents the peace of mind they deserve when they send their children to school for the day,” said Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.

 

The DOE initially objected to the bill, but came around after the deadline to complete the review was extended from the end of 2014 to May 2015, and the language of the bill was tweaked to make it more clear that the DOE could decide whether a school should get an alarm.

 

Mayor de Blasio plans to sign it, his office said.

 

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[QM1to6Ave]

Good! I remember in my school at least all the doors had alarms, but the issue was that the maintenance people never bothered to activate them. I think that is really the main issue

[CenSin]

Good luck putting them to use. They'll be sure to be deactivated for the mass exodus of kids at the end of the day. And when so many people are moving around, it's even easier for kids to disappear.

[peacemak3r]

This should have been done quite some time ago, I remember when I was in elementary school of how easy it was to just walk out and no one would notice.

 

On top of this, wonder how maintenance would be of these alarms and how long they would last.