Xander ,'Bring On The Night'
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
Va. Tech. had 2 bomb threats last week, both of which targeted the engineering buildings.
When I was at Marquette, working at the main library, we had a standard "what to do" sheet for when a bomb threat was called in, that's how often that happened. The science library got even more bomb threats.
We have evacuation, fire, bomb threats and gas leaks. (Those are internal procedures, written by us, not campus.)
I am sitting here thinking about how students would be notified if something like that happened. I mean, sending out a university wide email can only be done by a few people, and most students don't check their University emails except once or maybe twice a day. In fact, I was trying to get in touch with a student, had sent multiple emails to different addresses, etc. How did I finally get the kid? Sent a message on Facebook.
Shooter on campus seems like it would call for a loud blaring tornado siren type warning. Email can't cover that.
No doubt we will hear more than we ever wanted to about the sequence of events in the next few days. It seems likely that they believed the earlier shooting was the end of it.
I can't even imagine what the thousands of loved ones were going through this morning. I don't want to imagine it.
What did they do in the olden days before email?
When I was at UW-Madison, a guy came on campus and shot his ex-girlfriend in the head (she survived). Then he disappeared. A day later they found him dead in his motel room (suicide). But for a day no one had any idea where he was. There was no lockdown or official warnings to students (that I remember, anyway). The college papers did print descriptions of the guy, with the standard warning to call the police if anyone sighted him....
Shooter on campus seems like it would call for a loud blaring tornado siren type warning.
No one would understand what the siren meant and would run outside to see what was going on -- human kind is a bunch of rubberneckers.
Really, we've all got to get those chips implanted in our heads so we can be reached directly by those in authority. (no!)
This is an interesting debate.
I'm trying to figure out how to effect a prompt and complete lockdown of an entire college campus. If they locked down my campus, it's a good bet that I wouldn't find out about the lock down until I came to work. Which, okay, would mean they'd need to turn me away at the gate along with everyone else driving into campus--but that would require a very large security presence. Do most schools have that?
I'm trying to figure out if there would be any possible way to lock down my campus. We're not really a defined "campus" separate from the rest of the city -- there are a few blocks that are totally campus buildings, but then a whole bunch more blocks that are a mix of university and other stuff. But, on the other hand, most of the "other stuff" is World Bank and IMF, so I'm betting they've got security covered pretty well.
Which, okay, would mean they'd need to turn me away at the gate along with everyone else driving into campus--but that would require a very large security presence. Do most schools have that?
Do most schools have a gate? I went to large universities with no real obstacles along the campus boundries.
This is making me think about the shooting that happened at my grad school. I was probably 50 yds away when it happened. I have no idea what the official response was but I know there wasn't a lockdown.
A gate? We've got at least 6.
A big university is pretty big.