Case Study: The International School Yangon achieves proactive critical event management and staff accountability with BlackBerry AtHoc

How This International School Takes a Proactive Approach to Managing Critical Events

The International School Yangon (ISY) is a not-for-profit PreK–12 school in Yangon, Myanmar, serving roughly 800 students and 200 faculty and staff. After shifting to virtual learning for COVID, the 2021 coup and attendant unrest—including mobile data shutdowns, locked airports and street violence—left staff widely dispersed and communication channels unreliable, exposing the school’s reliance on phone trees, email and messaging as insufficient for protecting people and assets during critical events.

ISY deployed BlackBerry AtHoc in under a week to provide out-of-band alerting and personnel accountability, with templates for lockdowns, political unrest, shelter-in-place, power outages and embassy rebroadcasts. The system (currently for faculty, key staff and security) has sent 528 alerts and run 25 accountability exercises, improved situational awareness with mapping of personnel, and is being considered for broader use including parents, student travel and school bus safety.

The International School Yangon

John Whalen

Director of Health, Safety and Security