NIU response helped by Virginia Tech lessons

Doug Finke
GateHouse News Service
Fri Feb 15, 2008, 09:31 PM EST

SPRINGFIELD, IL - Northern Illinois University's response to Thursday's shooting rampage may have been helped by what state officials learned from last year's massacre at Virginia Tech University.

A Campus Safety Task Force was created to see what could be learned from the Virginia Tech incident and how those lessons could be implemented here.
Representatives from state colleges and universities, including NIU, attended task force meetings. One of the most important lessons discussed was getting information to students as quickly as possible.

"The response at Northern Illinois, from our standpoint, was extraordinary," said Mike Chamness, chairman of the Illinois Terrorism Task Force.

Students were notified within 20 minutes that a shooting occurred, to take cover and stay away from some parts of the campus, Chamness said. At Virginia Tech, it took more than two hours to issue an alert.

Students at NIU also were relaying text messages to each other. One idea discussed by the task force was that colleges should use multiple means to convey an emergency message to students, including encouraging the use of text messaging.

Rep. Rich Myers, R-Colchester, said Western Illinois University in his district just went through a drill to notify students in case of emergency.

"They sent text messages to cell phones, voice mail, e-mail," Myers said. "As I understand it, it was a very successful test."

What to do after an emergency is only part of the task force's responsibility. It is also examining prevention. A full report is scheduled to be delivered April 1.

"A mental health survey is still being completed," Chamness said. "That purpose is to look at ways to identify potential issues and how to deal with those, how to get help to those people."

That will probably require the assistance of students themselves.

"Be alert. If you see something that looks suspicious, don't be shy or embarrassed about picking up the phone and calling law enforcement authorities," Chamness advised. "You may be the person who helps prevent something."

At the same time, Chamness said there didn't seem to be the "red flags" in the NIU case that there were at Virginia Tech.

"I don't think there's a panacea out there for how you stop this," he said. "You're talking about somebody who walked into a classroom."

Chamness said state officials will meet with NIU staff in coming weeks to assess what happened and what parts of the response plan worked and if any didn't.

Rep. Dan Brady, R-Bloomington, said he wants two House committees — Higher Education and Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness — to convene a joint session in a few weeks to review the NIU situation.

"I want to have a joint hearing once reports are released and more information can be obtained as to how we can be better informed and better prepared," said Brady whose district includes Illinois State University. "Even though it looks like everyone worked in synch, there's always something to learn."

Doug Finke can be reached at (217) 788-1527.


Licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0</a>.

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Original Source:
<a href="http://ghns.ghnewsroom.com/regional_news/midwest/illinois/news/x230383197">http://ghns.ghnewsroom.com/regional_news/midwest/illinois/news/x230383197</a>

Doug Finke

2008-02-26

Kacey Beddoes

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0

eng

ND upset by NIU shooting

Students ask question, "Could it happen here?"

John Tierney

Issue date: 2/15/08 Section: News

Notre Dame students expressed sadness and shock Thursday night at yesterday&#39;s shooting at Northern Illinois. The tragedy, in which at least six people, including the gunman, were killed and 17 were injured, occurred in a lecture hall less than three hours away from Notre Dame&#39;s campus.

Although this generation of Notre Dame students has grown up with school shootings ranging from Columbine in 1999 to Virginia Tech last year, students haven&#39;t become immune to the tragedy of school massacres.

"It was very tragic and scary. You have to wonder what&#39;s going on with those kids. It makes you wonder if something like that could happen at Notre Dame," sophomore Tim Nelson said.

Many students had not heard of the shooting by Thursday evening, including a group of seniors who stood speechless after being informed of the news.

Student body president Liz Brown noted that school shootings are becoming more common. "Unfortunately, this is kind of becoming an occurrence on college campuses across the nation. Hopefully, this trend will stop," she said.

Brown also expressed a sense of grief at the NIU tragedy.

"This is a hard thing to react to," she said. "This sort of thing has become all too common at schools in the United States."

Senior Meghan Jebb, who was studying in Dublin at the time of the Virginia Tech tragedy, questioned the universality of school shootings.

"I don&#39;t know if this kind of thing happens in other countries. After the Va. Tech shootings, the kids in Ireland were like, &#39;why do they have guns?&#39;" she asked.

Colleen Fleshman, who is from Illinois, said that her first reaction after hearing the news was to call her friends who attend NIU to make sure of their safety. She said she was relieved to find that all her friends were alright.

Although the shooter&#39;s motivations are not yet known, some students have wondered about the timing of his attack.

"He probably picked Valentine&#39;s Day for a reason," junior Ryan Simmons said.

Sophomore Kyle Hagelskamp agreed.

"It&#39;s too bad that people don&#39;t feel the love and support of the world and resort to doing something like this," he said. "We need to work on providing a loving and supportive environment to try to prevent this sort of tragedy."

Brown stressed that while she obviously hopes that no similar situation would happen at Notre Dame, the University has precautions in place designed to manage a tragedy.

"Certainly we hope it would never happen at Notre Dame," she said. "We think our campus is very safe. But if it were to ever happen, I&#39;m thankful that we do have the correct measures in place to adequately inform the student body and react quickly."

These measures include the Emergency Networking System that will alert students to any emergency situations through text messages, phone calls and emails. These emergency situations include shootings.

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Original Source:
<a href="http://media.www.ndsmcobserver.com/media/storage/paper660/news/2008/02/15/News/Nd.Upset.By.Niu.Shooting-3213406.shtml">http://media.www.ndsmcobserver.com/media/storage/paper660/news/2008/02/15/News/Nd.Upset.By.Niu.Shooting-3213406.shtml</a>

John Tierney

2008-02-25

Kacey Beddoes

Christopher Hine <chine@nd.edu>

eng

_VT_Vigil_14.jpg

Attendees at Virginia Tech&#39;s candlelight vigil for NIU.


Photo by Kim Peterson

Original Source:
<a href="http://www.ee.unirel.vt.edu/index.php/vtnews/flip_book/C69/P12/">http://www.ee.unirel.vt.edu/index.php/vtnews/flip_book/C69/P12/</a>

Kim Peterson

2008-02-22

Kacey Beddoes

Kim Peterson (thekim@vt.edu)

eng

VT_Vigil_13.jpg

View of candlelight vigil for NIU on Virginia Tech&#39;s Alumni Mall.


Photo by Kim Peterson

Original Source:
<a href="http://www.ee.unirel.vt.edu/index.php/vtnews/flip_book/C69/P11/">http://www.ee.unirel.vt.edu/index.php/vtnews/flip_book/C69/P11/</a>

Kim Peterson

2008-02-22

Kacey Beddoes

Kim Peterson (thekim@vt.edu)

eng

_VT_Vigil_12.jpg

Virginia Tech&#39;s candlelight vigil for NIU.


Photo by Kim Peterson

Original Source:
<a href="http://www.ee.unirel.vt.edu/index.php/vtnews/flip_book/C69/P10/">http://www.ee.unirel.vt.edu/index.php/vtnews/flip_book/C69/P10/</a>

Kim Peterson

2008-02-22

Kacey Beddoes

Kim Peterson (thekim@vt.edu)

eng

_VT_Vigil_11.jpg

Virginia Tech&#39;s candlelight vigil for NIU.


Photo by Kim Peterson

Original Source:
<a href="http://www.ee.unirel.vt.edu/index.php/vtnews/flip_book/C69/P9/">http://www.ee.unirel.vt.edu/index.php/vtnews/flip_book/C69/P9/</a>

Kim Peterson

2008-02-22

Kacey Beddoes

Kim Peterson (thekim@vt.edu)

eng

_VT_Vigil_10.jpg

Attendees hold candles at Virginia Tech&#39;s vigil for NIU.


Photo by Kim Peterson

Original Source:
<a href="http://www.ee.unirel.vt.edu/index.php/vtnews/flip_book/C69/P8/">http://www.ee.unirel.vt.edu/index.php/vtnews/flip_book/C69/P8/</a>

Kim Peterson

2008-02-22

Kacey Beddoes

Kim Peterson (thekim@vt.edu)

eng

_VT_Vigil_09.jpg

Attendees hold candles at Virginia Tech&#39;s vigil for NIU.


Photo by Kim Peterson

Original Source:
<a href="http://www.ee.unirel.vt.edu/index.php/vtnews/flip_book/C69/P7/">http://www.ee.unirel.vt.edu/index.php/vtnews/flip_book/C69/P7/</a>

Kim Peterson

2008-02-22

Kacey Beddoes

Kim Peterson (thekim@vt.edu)

eng

_VT_Vigil_08.jpg

Virginia Tech&#39;s President Steger holds a candle at vigil for NIU.


Photo by Kim Peterson

Original Source:
<a href="http://www.ee.unirel.vt.edu/index.php/vtnews/flip_book/C69/P6/">http://www.ee.unirel.vt.edu/index.php/vtnews/flip_book/C69/P6/</a>

Kim Peterson

2008-02-22

Kacey Beddoes

Kim Peterson (thekim@vt.edu)

eng

_VT_Vigil_07.jpg

View of candlelight vigil for NIU under Torgerson Bridge at Virginia Tech.

Photo by Kim Peterson

Original Source:
<a href="http://www.ee.unirel.vt.edu/index.php/vtnews/flip_book/C69/P5/">http://www.ee.unirel.vt.edu/index.php/vtnews/flip_book/C69/P5/</a>

Kim Peterson

2008-02-22

Kacey Beddoes

Kim Peterson (thekim@vt.edu)

eng