Hillcrest High was put on lock down today, because a local business was robbed at gun point. Not long ago my own children's school was put on lock down from a situation that I found out about through the local media.  No letter was ever sent home from the school, no phone call made to our home, no nothing. As a parent, I had to find out from a news report that I found on a local news media website.  It caused me to wonder why were they not communicating with me, the parent.  Sure maybe my children were not in danger, but it would have had some type of communication, even if it was as simple as a "You may have heard that there was a lock down at our school today, let me tell you what that means for your student..." and then explained what procedures they may go through.  I would much rather be informed about things like this be able to speak intelligently with my children about something like that then have it an unknown. On the flip side, what a great tool (if it hasn't already been developed) for someone to develop.  Take something like Google Maps and integrate it a subscription type emailing system, where you allow businesses and individuals to sign up for alerts of anything happening in their area.  You could send out coupons, event and informational alerts, etc. Take the Hillcrest incident I mentioned above.  So the store above is robbed, they send out the information to those people, the school gets it and is put on lock down (or is put on lock down in their typical fashion), they then alert their parents in through the same email type system. It all happens in a matter of minutes and for relatively little cost compared to composing  a paper letter replicating it and sending it home with students. Now who wants to help me develop and market it?