Is MSU Prepared for an On-Campus Shooting?

By Christine LaRouere of Michigan State University

After hearing about a recent school shooting in Nevada, marketing sophomore Amanda Michelsen has been wondering if Michigan State University has thought about the possibility of a shooting on campus.

“Lately, these shootings seem to be happening more often,” Michelsen said. “It makes me wonder if MSU has a plan or not.”

Michelsen also said she feels uneasy that she has not heard if MSU is organized and has a strategy if something like this were to happen.

Photo by thivierr on flickr.com

“I have not been informed about any plan and that makes me uneasy that I have not heard much about anything if a possible shooting were to happen,” Michelsen said.

According to MSU Police Officer Steven Beard, he said the police department has a specialized plan, which is detailed on its Website, when it comes to what protocol for a shooting would be and preparing faculty and staff.

“There are links to the police Website on things to do and how to react,” Beard said. “Faculty and staff also have training done on a quarterly basis in how and what to do in that type of situation.”

However, Beard said that the information about training sessions come from MSU Human Resources Organization and Employee Development, but are not mandatory and are to be done at each professor’s discretion.

“This is not a set thing they have to go to,” Beard said. “It’s personal responsibility to get the knowledge they want.”

Even though some faculty members did not want to talk about the training for a possible shooting on campus, Janice Bukovac-Phelps, assistant professor in the department of advertising and public relations, openly said she did not know preparation was offered because she has not received any information about previous or upcoming training sessions.

“They may offer it, but I never, or anyone I know off hand, have gotten that training,” Bukovac-Phelps said. “There’s a legal sequence in the university if I ever had a grievance, but nothing in regards to something of an emergency that I have had to do.”

For each building on campus, Beard also said there is an emergency team that is trained in what to do for any kind of emergency situation.

“Almost every building on campus has an emergency team consisting of faculty and staff and volunteers on what to do on any type of emergency,” Beard said. “There is at least one emergency action team member and they would be first to respond and then we would follow.”

Beard said he could not go over the specific plans on how the police would control the situation because they do not want to layout a blueprint for a possible shooter to understand.

Beard also said these emergency action team members are trained by lecture on how to handle each emergency situation.

When Bukovac-Phelps heard that there are emergency management teams in each building, she said she had no idea those teams existed.

“I feel bad because there probably is and I maybe didn’t get the memo,” Bukovac-Phelps said. “I wouldn’t be surprised that there are people like that but it isn’t well publicized.”

Phillip Schertzing, academic specialist within the MSU School of Criminal Justice, said before he retired from Michigan State Police about 12 years ago, there was not much preparation for a possible school shooting until the shooting at Columbine High School occurred on April 20, 1999.

“The main thing that got people’s attention was the Columbine case. There was not any protocol in place at that time,” Schertzing said. “With other incidents like Virginia Tech and Sandy Hook in Connecticut, these incidents have gotten huge.”

Schertzing has also noticed that the reason protocol is constantly changing and being improved is due to the lessons from the previous school shootings around the country.

“Very different approaches are being looked at now of days,” Schertzing said. “They can now study the lessons learned from every one of these past cases.”

Schertzing also said if he was put in a shooting situation when he worked with the police, he would have waited for the SWAT team to arrive.

“I would want a lot of back up and even the SWAT team to come in to take care of whoever the shooter was,” Schertzing said.

From the evidence based off of those tragedies, Schertzing said is allows current officers to see patterns and create a special process of what needs to be done if there were to be a shooting. There has been progress in the preparation such as lockdown drills, tabletop exercises and better communication throughout the university, he said.

“There may be some common patterns from the evidence, Schertzing said. “Now, protocol or policies can be developed to improve more peoples chances to be safe and subdue the bad guys.”

To keep the MSU community apprised of an on-campus shooting or any other emergency, Beard said there are several ways of instant communication to students, workers and faculty such as alerts in text messages and phone calls, a message with instructions on the MSU home page Website, and audible messages through the CodeBlue Speaker System in the residence halls.

“There are several different methods of pushing the information out to faculty and students,” Beard said. “Everything is already all done and set to be sent out immediately.”

Schertzing also said he has noticed the major improvement of communication and that it will help keep people safe in the long run.

“So many people are connected now,” Schertzing said. “This will help make sure people are getting accurate information rather than seeing it through social media.”

In addition to the MSU police responding to a possible shooting, Beard also said surrounding departments and sheriffs would come to help at the site.

“We have mutual aid agreements with surrounding agencies so I believe those agencies would come to assist,” Beard said. “We would aggressively address the situation.”

If there were to be a shooting on- campus, Beard also said faculty’s first reaction should be to call the police to inform and update them about the situation and then go into a enclosed room, lock all doors and windows and close any blinds.

Bukovac-Phelps said she wants to get more information about what to do in the situation of a possible shooting and it would be helpful to hear about procedures more often.

“It’s one of those things that you don’t know what you are going to do until you have that situation,” Bukovac-Phelps said. “I would like to understand the process and if there is someone here that is supposed to be a main person to go to. I don’t even know if there is anything in place so just knowing that kind of stuff would certainly be of value.”