Local colleges reflect on Va. Tech shootings
By Peter Reuell/Daily News staff
The MetroWest Daily News
Posted Apr 16, 2008 @ 12:35 AM
ASHLAND —
A year after the shooting massacre that left 33 people dead at Virginia Tech, security remains a concern on local college campuses.
On campuses from Framingham to Franklin, officials said, the aftershocks of the shooting - and a more recent incident at Northern Illinois University, which left five others dead - are still being felt.
After the April 16, 2007, killings at Virginia Tech, many schools quickly re-evaluated their security plans, particularly their ability to communicate with faculty and staff in a crisis.
At many, including Framingham State College, the solution was to install a system that allows administrators to send emergency messages by phone and computer to the entire campus at the touch of a button.
"You learn from the incident, and it allows you to, perhaps, make changes in your own systems," said Framingham State spokesman Peter Chisholm.
The school later this month plans to finish installing a siren that will alert students, faculty and staff to campuswide emergencies.
"At every college or university campus in the country, I'm sure, the president and public safety administrators sat down and reviewed what they had in place, and what improvements they could make," Chisholm said.
The incident that sparked those meetings happened a year ago today in Blacksburg, Va.
Just after 7 a.m., disturbed Virginia Tech student Seung-Hui Cho killed two students in a dormitory, then went on a shooting rampage in a classroom building, eventually killing 32 people and himself.
At Massachusetts Bay Community College in Wellesley, administrators are close to installing a campuswide notification system similar to Framingham State's. They have held numerous meetings to review the school's crisis policies.
"There's a method or protocol for just about every situation that could arise on campus," said Lisa Cascio, the school's director of communications and public affairs. "When something like this happens, every campus across the country feels vulnerable."
Along with an emergency communications system, Franklin's Dean College officials rely on an emergency alarm, which alerts everyone on campus to emergencies.
"We've trained everybody to know - students, faculty and staff - if you hear that alarm, that means check your text messages," said Pat Samson, director of public relations and communications.
"I think incidents like these, it's not that it raised the priority. I think it refocused attention," she added. "We want to make sure everything is up to date.
"I think it sharpens the focus. (Safety) is in the top three things, so it's always on the minds of the college's administrators, and the families and the students. When these events happen, things just come more sharply into focus."
(Peter Reuell can be reached at 508-626-4428 or preuell@cnc.com.)
Licensed under Creative Commons
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/">Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Generic</a>
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Original Source:
<a href="http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x489723324">http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x489723324</a>
Peter Reuell
2008-04-19
Kacey Beddoes
eng
MUPD, OPD evaluate emergency response plans
By: Caroline Briggs
Posted: 4/20/07
In the wake of the shooting at Virginia Polytechnic Institute Monday, Miami University's police and administration, along with Oxford Police, are checking Oxford's own ability to respond to such an emergency.
Miami President David Hodge sent an e-mail to Miami students, staff and faculty Tuesday stating that Miami's police force is highly trained and able to deal with a live shooter situation. Hodge's e-mail also outlined specific guidelines for students in a lockdown situation.
According to Miami University Police Department (MUPD) Chief John McCandless, changes have not been made to the current lockdown policy; however, he and his fellow officers have been preparing for such a situation on Miami's campus for quite
some time.
"We've been training for an active shooter for a couple of years," McCandless said. "We can tweak the police based on what worked and what didn't (for Virginia Tech police). There is a lot of misinformation streaming to the media for the first 24 to 48 hours in a situation like that. We will learn from the more solid information that the media reports in the following four or five days."
Though MUPD only has 29 full-time police officers, McCandless said he is not concerned about quantitative manpower in an emergency. He said the Oxford Police Department (OPD) has 25
full-time officers and the Oxford Township Police has 10 full and part-time officers. McCandless said these departments would fully support Miami police if necessary.
"We have a wonderful professional relationship with the local police agencies," McCandless said. "(This will) add up to be a substantial police contingency in the case of an emergency."
According to both McCandless and OPD's Chief Steve Schwein, the first force to respond to the most critical police situation; similar to the one in Blacksburg, Va.; would be Oxford's Special Response Team (SRT) Team, comprised of seven OPD officers, one Oxford Township officers and five MUPD officers.
In addition, both chiefs said further action would be determined during the events.
The squad holds monthly training sessions to prepare for hypothetical situations that need a police presence. McCandless said the SRT Team held a mock live shooter exercise in the summer of 2006 in Reid Hall on Miami's campus. The squad also traveled to New Mexico for further training funded by the Department of Homeland Security in December 2006, according to McCandless.
"Any time you can plan a tactical situation in advance, the results are almost always positive," Schwein said. "The key is being properly prepared by planning and rehearsing the situation."
Miami University Police Department Lt. Andrew Powers said he has referred students to the police Web site, which outlines procedure in the event of an emergency. It states that if the shooter is outside or in the same building, students should find a safe, lockable room and barricade themselves inside and situate themselves on the ground, away from the door.
Subjects hiding from the active shooter should not respond or move from their safe space until verifiable police arrive. Whether or not the shooter is in the room, the policy urges one person in the situation to call 911, so police may be dispatched to the area and properly deal with the situation.
McCandless also reiterated the point of calling 911. He said that though the phone may ring several times if there are a lot of calls to the station at once, the dispatch phone lines can handle it and extra officers will be standing by, if necessary, to answer emergency calls.
The Office of News and Public Information at Miami has set up a hotline to inform students of a campus-wide emergency. It was originally put in place this spring to centralize school information in regards to weather, according to Carole Johnson, the office's internal communications spokeswoman.
According to the Office of News and Public Information, that number is (513) 529-9000.
After the snowstorms and necessary cancellations that followed, Johnson said the school thought it necessary to have an outlet for information besides e-mail and Miami's Web site. Besides the hotline, she said Miami's administration is constantly looking for possible improvements so the school can better handle an emergency situation.
"We constantly look at our crisis plan, almost on a daily basis," Johnson said. "Looking at it, updating it, and continuous training are critical in continuing a solid crisis plan, year round."
Johnson also said because technology is always changing, new ways to contact students in the event of an emergency could potentially develop.
Miami University's branch campuses at Hamilton and Middletown do not have their own police force like the Oxford campus, but are instead protected by the city departments of Hamilton and Middletown.
According to Officer John Crawford of the Hamilton Police Department, policy has not changed since Monday for the department, nor does he think that it appears they will.
"Most police agencies across the country changed policy (regarding schools and active shooter situations) after the Columbine shooting in 1999," Crawford said. "Rapid deployment where officers have their equipment in their vehicle along with SWAT team presence are key in any situation like that."
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Original Source:<a href=http://media.www.miamistudent.net/media/storage/paper776/news/2007/04/20/FrontPage/Mupd-Opd.Evaluate.Emergency.Response.Plans-2870665.shtml>The Miami Student - April 27, 2007</a>
Caroline Briggs
The Miami Student
2007-08-14
Sara Hood
"Skotzko, Stacey Nicole" <skotzksn@muohio.edu>
eng
Examining Safety at State, Local Levels
<b>EMS director outlines city's disaster-response system</b>
By: Evelyn Ratigan
Posted: 4/20/07
As the efficiency of the emergency response system at Virginia Tech faces scrutiny, with critics saying the school was slow to notify its members of the attacks in which 32 people were killed on campus Monday, Boston's expert on emergency response systems said the city is prepared for a large-scale disaster.
Boston Emergency Medical Services Chief Richard Serino, detailing the city's strategy to a group of about 20 yesterday at Harvard University, said the city is focused on improving communication within departments and with the community.
"Everybody has to be involved in all the various parts of this," Serino said. "Communication is a huge issue. You don't want to be exchanging business cards at the scene of the disaster."
Serino cited Boston's historic landmarks, dense population and subway system as factors that make the city a top terrorist target. He said the city has been aware of this and has spent more than 25 years revising tactics in case of an emergency.
"Emergency preparedness is not something new for us," he said. "It's not just something we've been looking at since 9-11."
Serino said the key to emergency preparedness is encouraging partnerships among the city's departments and private businesses, as well as the public services involved in the process. This collaboration has become "institutionalized" from years spent building these relationships, he said.
The BEMS constantly works with the Boston police and fire departments, the MBTA and other state and local agencies, he said. In addition, hospitals sharing staff members and enhanced radio communication systems linking state and local agencies coordinate first responders who would otherwise remain disconnected, he added.
Serino said high-profile events such as the Democratic National Convention in 2004 and the Boston Marathon are used to practice for emergencies, calling them "planned disasters." Monday's marathon, for example, allowed the BEMS to test its hospital tracking system to notify the families of the more than 500 runners hospitalized for exhaustion.
"In an emergency, one of the key things is communication with the injured," he said. "I think that we have to communicate whatever it is to the general public as well."
BEMS technicians also coordinate drills, including a recently staged evacuation on the MBTA's Red Line and a larger disaster simulation planned for this fall, he said.
Addressing the January bomb scare spurred by suspicious packages used in a Turner Broadcasting advertising campaign gone awry, Serino defended the city's reaction, which some called excessive.
"It wasn't just [circuit boards] scattered throughout the city," he said. "There were a lot of things that happened that day that a lot of people don't know."
Two devices resembling pipe bombs in Boston and an explosion on a bus in Washington, D.C. the same day had put Boston authorities on high alert, Serino said, adding the city and state agencies' quick and unified reaction proved the emergency response system's effectiveness.
Maj. Patti Pettis, a weapons of mass destruction specialist from Atlanta, said she approves of Boston's constant scrutiny of its emergency response plans.
"The program will help find where the resources are and where the gaps are," she said.
Pettis said the public must understand the city's elaborate emergency response plans to be better prepared in the event of a disaster.
"It's up to the local community to be prepared," she said. "[At first], they're going to be on their own."
Pettis cited the Virginia Tech shootings as an example of failed communication Boston must avoid, and she said it is vital for first responders to inform the public of emergency situations to put them at ease and avoid mass panic.
"Communication makes all the difference," she said. "If everyone works together, you'll leave no gaps."
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Original Source:<a href=http://media.www.dailyfreepress.com/media/storage/paper87/news/2007/04/20/News/Examining.Safety.At.State.Local.Levels-2871444.shtml>The Daily Free Press - April 20, 2007</a>
Evelyn Ratigan
The Daily Free Press
2007-08-14
Sara Hood
Matt Negrin <editor@dailyfreepress.com>
eng
Emergency management comes to UNC
By: Elyse McCoy, Staff Writer
Posted: 7/5/07
The University is in the initial stages of development for the Public Information Emergency Response Communication Management System, or PIER, an Internet-based communication tool used to help relay emergency-related content and messages.
Students, faculty and staff will be alerted in the event of a crime, unexpected weather emergency or other event that requires immediate warning through a secure Web page that will look like a regular UNC-Chapel Hill Web page. Using the PIER system, campus security officials can post key emergency materials; templates of information prepared in advance about certain scenarios; detailed information about how to reach the University's key constituents, including students, faculty and staff; and background information about the campus, maps and emergency policies and procedures.
PIER also provides the capability to track and respond to questions from key stakeholders or the general public.
Following the Virginia Tech shootings, the University has strengthened its already extensive plans and procedures, but plans for developing a contract with the PIER vendor for the 16-campus UNC system have been in existence since the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
UNC-Wilmington and UNC-Charlotte have been the most involved campuses to date, with Wilmington being designated the first campus to begin its PIER-related work and training several months ago.
The PIER system's clients include the U.S. Coast Guard - which used the system during Hurricane Katrina, the University of Houston, and several major corporations.
UNC-Chapel Hill has just recently begun training a small group of key people most likely to be involved with using PIER as a communication tool in an emergency situation, including those involved in University relations, public safety and information technology departments.
"We have started working on training issues as the spring semester was winding down and will continue over the summer," said Mike McFarland, the director of University communications.
"We believe PIER can help complement resources the University already uses and are developing, such as a siren system and the Rave system to communicate quickly, accurately and effectively with students, faculty, staff and other University-related audiences or the general public," McFarland said. Unlike the PIER system, which is primarily focused around managing information in an emergency, the Rave system is part of a broader effort to extend the campus to mobile phones.
"Rave has much more day-to-day impact on the lives of our students," said Brian Payst, the director of Technology & Systems Support.
"We certainly can, and will if needed, use Rave to send emergency broadcast messages, but it does much, much more than that for us."
The Rave system is used to provide bus arrival times for all the Chapel Hill Transit routes and stops, the ability to read UNC e-mail, information from slice.unc.edu about student events, Blackboard alerts, Rave Guardian (an enhanced personal safety service), group messaging, polls and more on students' mobile phones. The University's partnership with Rave Wireless also enables the University to offer a steeply discounted cell phone program to students living in residence halls on campus in order to allow access to these services at the lowest possible cost.
The campus Emergency Notification committee has been coordinating efforts to integrate the PIER and Rave systems as much as possible to reduce duplication where it exists.
"We plan to integrate the information coming from PIER into a spot in the UNC mobile phone interface so you can easily check for closings or other important announcements coming from PIER," Payst said.
Payst does not think that the implementation of both the PIER system and the Rave system will be confusing to either students or their parents.
"They do different things, so we do not think it will be all that confusing, and we will work hard to clearly communicate the distinctions where they arise."
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Original Source: <a href=http://media.www.dailytarheel.com/media/storage/paper885/news/2007/07/05/University/Emergency.Management.Comes.To.Unc-2921381.shtml>The Daily Tar Heel - July 05, 2007</a>
Elyse McCoy
The Daily Tar Heel
2007-07-15
Sara Hood
Kevin Schwartz <kschwartz@unc.edu>
eng