Pitt Installs Panic Buttons Inside Classrooms

PITTSBURGH — (WPXI) – School shootings are an all too familiar and terrifying scene, but at the University of Pittsburgh, students and professors will soon be armed with a new tool to help fight back. Panic buttons are being installed for the fall semester in about 400 main campus classrooms, generally on doors or podiums, to quickly call for help in case of an active threat or emergency. The university posted a video to its website showing how the device works. Once pushed, classroom doors lock from the outside and police are immediately called. The new security measures come after two calls in the spring about an active shooter at the university, including in the library. Turns out, those calls were all a hoax, but it caused mass panic with students running for their lives.