An Unexpected Detour

I work at a college campus. As employees, we are aware of the threat this can pose. We often see in the media of different school shootings that have recently taken place.

Today, a threat happened in Springfield. We now know, two seperate events took place at almost the same time. One involving a serious threat that the campus was made aware of from Homeland Security, and one involved a dispute that allegedly resulted in an individual showing a gun at another university campus right up the road from my college.

You can read more about the threats here. 

This resulted in my campus going on a lockdown. I was in my classroom with my class of high school students. It was speech day, so a student was at the front of the classroom. 

When we were made aware of the lockdown from a Safety & Security officer, we went to the back corner of the room, locked the door and shut out the lights. This classroom is next to the side entrance to the building, that happens to be the first building down the street from where the gun incident took place. 

There is a big window to the hall in my class, so we quickly moved into a large closet in the back of the room. 

My students were all able to text or call their parents as we looked to social media for updates. 

Thankfully, both suspects were apprehended and there was no harm to any students or individuals. 

Was it scary? Yes. At the time it was a real threat. And it rattled me. For me, the scariest part was that I was with students. I think it would not has shook me as much had I just been alone in my office. 

Even as I look back at my tweets and FB updates, I can see that some may think of these as over reactive. You see, I was in a dark, small closet with 25+ students. We were relying, thankfully, on social media updates. Social media was also a way for me to update friends, family and coworkers of the whereabouts of myself and, more importantly, my students. 

Is there a ton to learn from this? Yes. First, I must say, we did so many things right. I felt safe and secure almost immediately. We have active shooter drills on campus. We have behavioral intervention teams of counselors who work with our students. We try as best as we can to prepare, but when you have thousands of students on campus in all classrooms, you learn a bit more. 

For instance, I put my phone on 'Do not Disturb' when I go into a classroom. I had my phone right in front of me, but did not get the alert because of the setting. The classroom phone did not go off until many minutes later. I did not know to go on lockdown until an officer came in my classroom (which was very quickly). Many students in common areas were not made aware as quickly as we would like. That classroom definitely needs blinds. And maybe I'll risk the buzz of a text or call interrupting my lecture or a speech to get a Red Alert text. 

Although we can learn from this, I can not say enough about our Safety and Security team and leadership at my campus. They took the threat seriously with the information that was given and acted swiftly. Obviously, there are some threats that don't get acted on. Many campuses chose not to lock down today.  I feel much safer knowing the steps our team took to ensure the safety of our students and staff. 

Was it an overreaction? No. I think when there is a localized threat, it is better to lose an hour of class time than to jeopardize the safety of all the people we, as a college, are responsible for, who include not only out adult students, but also our high school students and daycare students. 

So THANK YOU to everyone at my college who made this girl feel a bit more safe.  

**All opinions expressed are my own and not necessarially that of my employer or any other institution.