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Robocall says 'technical glitch' causing false alerts for Palm Beach County public schools

No schools on lockdown, all campuses and district facilities safe, according to robocall
Palm Beach County School District logo
Posted at 8:48 AM, Aug 19, 2022
and last updated 2022-08-19 11:40:31-04

PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — The School District of Palm Beach County said Friday a "technical glitch" in its security system caused "false alerts" to be sent out to families.

"Because of a technical glitch in the Safer Watch security system, false alerts are being sent to district facilities," the district said in a robocall to parents and guardians around 8:30 a.m.

In the call, the school district said no Palm Beach County public schools are currently on lockdown.

"All campuses and district ancillary facilities are safe. The district is working quickly to get to the source of this and solve the technical issue," the robocall said.

LISTEN: Robocall about 'false alerts' for Palm Beach County schools

Hours later, the School District of Palm Beach County sent a second robocall at 11:30 a.m., saying the emergency alert notification originated with a drill at one of the district's schools.

"That notification was inadvertently shared through an app to multiple schools," the robocall said.

The call went onto say that the school district's alert notification systems are integrated in an effort to streamline important security information for families.

"For that reason, an alert that appeared on one app rolled over to the Safer Watch emergency alert system and then was shared," the robocall said.

The school district emphasized that no schools were threatened or on lockdown, and the glitch was not an error on the part of Safer Watch.

"The district is currently working with the vendor of the primary app on which the notification of the drill originated and taking steps to avoid any future situations like this," the robocall said.