By David Reagan
Staff Writer/Photographer
At the University of Texas on the campus in Austin at about 8:15 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 28, student Colton Tooley opened fire, before killing himself.
His actions, along with shootings at other schools in recent years, have raised questions among universities nationwide. These questions pertain to the immediate preparations and actions that must be set in place for student safety, campus security, violence prevention and reactive measures.
With the progressive frequency of these shootings within the past decade, many schools are being forced to re-examine, update or establish a program with the necessary proactive safety measures.
As technology advances and communication becomes instantaneous through the use of email, Facebook, Twitter, text-messaging and picture messaging, standards must now be re-evaluated according to our new resources.
In the aftermath of the University of Texas shooting, many on our campus are left with the frightening, seemingly unanswered questions about what safety measures Southeastern has set in place should something like this happen.
Although many Southeastern students may not be aware of the procedures in place at our university, there is indeed an emergency safety procedure set in place in case of an event similar to the one in Austin.
According to Campus Police Department Director Jon Clouse, we not only have safety measures in place, but they also exceed those of most universities to date, with Southeastern being the first in Oklahoma to employ such programs.
SE’s reactive safety measures include: officers trained in active response shooting (for a gun threat which has reached the point of necessary elimination), a panic button for teachers which requires only the pressing of two keys on a computer for the activation of a silent alarm, the loudspeaker tornado sirens, microphone-ready loudspeakers which emit voice-overs, faculty and student emergency emails and text message emergency alerts to all currently subscribed.
The proactive safety program Southeastern currently has in place to equip individuals before a hazardous event occurs is called CERT (Community Emergency Response Teams).
The CERT program is designed not only to train police officers, teachers and faculty but also to train students how to care for themselves or take the appropriate action until help arrives.
According to Clouse, when the first responders are unable to respond immediately due a major campuswide disaster, such as several tornadoes throughout the county or an on campus gun threat, teachers and faculty must be able to react immediately and similarly through one agreed plan of action.
All of Southeastern’s teachers and faculty, as well as RHA staff, have sat in on the Campus Police “Safety Talks.” These Safety Talks are more interactive than they are lectures, including classroom demonstrations with backpack, helmets, vests, gloves, goggles, mannequins and first aid kits.
The program is geared towards, but is definitely not limited to, faculty and staff.
Clouse encourages all students to take the training course because all will benefit from the class involving disaster preparedness, fire suppression, medical operations, light search and rescue, disaster psychology and disaster simulation.
CERT is about proactive measures for reactive situations, teachers helping students, students helping students, rescuer safety and better equipping you, the individual.
To contact Clouse and set up a day for a safety training session or book a Safety Talk, call him at 745-2952 or send an e-mail to [email protected].
You can also contact Marlin Blankinship at 745-2058. Blankenship is a CERT instructor who is currently working at SE.