Tuesday, January 27, 2009

omg, txt msgs fubar

The local school district recently launched a system that broadcasts text-message alerts (closings, delays and critical incidents) to our cell phones. Great idea.

Anyone -- parents, students, local residents -- can sign up for the alerts via the district's website, so my wife and I, along with both of our spawns, subscribed.

It would seem to be a simple, useful program, but it's not going well. Take, for instance, the four text messages I received this snowy morning.


  • 8:18am: All schools are on a two-hour delay.

  • 10:11am: A bomb threat has been made at the high school. All students are safe. Police are on the scene.

  • 10:37am: All students have been evacuated to the Fieldhouse or Gymnasium. Students cannot be released until Fire Dept and Police search is co

  • 10:58am: The police and fire departs have cleared the building. The students are returning to their classes and will proceed with th
To start with, the genius who's sending these needs to learn how to type for text messaging's character limit -- using &, @, PD, FD, gym, bldg, etc. would be fine. Articles and pronouns are luxuries. Complete sentences take a back seat to complete information.

Prompt delivery seems to be a problem, too. I learned of this morning's two-hour delay on a TV station's website, but I didn't get the school district's text message until over an hour after classes are scheduled to begin (normally 7:10am, pushed back today to 9:10am). Not helpful.

At least I got all four messages -- our older spawn received the one about the delayed opening, but none of the others showed up. I haven't yet talked to our younger spawn to find out how he fared.


And my wife? She didn't get any of the alerts. She learned of the lockdown by way of a "breaking news" text message from a local TV station.

It's not the first time that one or another (or all) of us hasn't received these alerts, despite having subscribed and re-subscribed.

Technology can be our friend, but the truth is that relying on technology isn't a good idea. An addiction to gadgetry only encourages laziness, dependence and irresponsibility. Still, an alert system, whether it's high-tech or stone-age, has to work.

This one doesn't.


Memo to the district offices: Either fix the thing or pull the plug.