Sonoma County reacts to rampage
Press-Democrat 4/17/07
The calls came from SSU students, from faculty, from police officials at the other 22 campuses.
"No parents yet, but I'm sure they will follow," said Johnson, who is SSU's police chief and the CSU police coordinator.
"I've already said to put on an executive-level training on an active shooter, to revisit that again" throughout the CSU system, he said.
Monday's shooting rampage, the deadliest in modern U.S. history, once again has focused attention on security measures in place to prevent violence on school campuses from kindergarten upward.
"It forces us to immediately refocus upon the priority that all of the school districts place on school campus security," said Carl Wong, the Sonoma County schools superintendent.
The specter of a campus shooting "is probably the biggest fear factor for schools," said Koby LaFayette of the Redwood Empire School Insurance Group, the insurer for all the county's school districts.
LaFayette is the group's coordinator of a federal grant project to bring all schools into compliance with state and national standards for emergency management plans. Those plans must be tailored to each school's particular circumstances, from geography to size.
She is working with the 253 public and private schools in Sonoma County to bring them into compliance by June.
In the event of such incidents as shootings, she said, the challenge is heightened because "most of our schools are not set up to safely sequester students -- they weren't built for that."
For example, she said, newer schools are designed with doors that lock from the inside.
In Sonoma County, each school's plans must take into account 16 potential disasters, from earthquakes to terrorism -- the category shootings fall into -- to a pandemic flu outbreak.
The schools also must plan for six "actions," she said: a school closure before the school day starts; a lockdown; an evacuation; a return-evacuation in which students have to get inside; and a drop, cover and hold procedure to take cover in the event of a shooting.
"That's what we try and train the schools to do, they work for any incident we have," she said.
It couldn't be determined Monday how many of the county's schools have plans that meet the state and federal standards.
"I think the greatest majority of them are done, and the rest of them will be done by the end of June," said Brent Howatt, the insurer's executive director.
Howatt said the group considers the process so important it will continue paying for the program when the federal grant expires in June. It will cost roughly $100,000 a year to make updating the security plans an ongoing task.
At SSU, Johnson said he has plans in place to deal with disasters, whether man-made or natural. The plans involve close relationships with other local law enforcement and emergency agencies and regular training.
And in the event of a shooting or hostage situation, he said, "I think Columbine taught us all that we can't sit around and wait for the whole tactical team to get there before we go in and address the problem."
Twelve students and a teacher were killed in the 1999 Columbine High School killings in Colorado, in which the two student gunmen also killed themselves. Questions later were raised about whether police had waited too long before entering the school.
"Our officers have been aware of that for a couple of years, and that's what they train for, with that in mind," Johnson said.
Through the day, as details emerged about the Blacksburg, Va., shootings and the death toll climbed, college students said the events cast a shadow on an environment that is far more than a set of classrooms.
"It's scary; you think when you're at school, you're safe," said SSU senior Jeanette Timko, 21. "Especially in the dorms, it's your home."
Some reacted with anger, as in a Santa Rosa Junior College cafeteria where students already looked to the aftermath.
"I'm wondering who the scapegoat is going to be this time," said Gary Burke, 21, of Santa Rosa.
After Columbine and other school shootings, people speculated whether the student gunmen had been influenced by violent video games or music, he noted.
"Ultimately, it is the responsibility of the parents to raise their children right," he said.
A friend chimed in. "Talk to them, don't interrogate them, get to know them," said Sylvan Mance, 20, of Angwin.
Jeanne Anderson, 21, of Windsor said she hoped the shooter at Virginia Tech would be among the dead or, if not, would face the death penalty.
Told the shooter had killed himself, she said: "At least they saved someone the time."
Wong, the county's school chief, said schools have worked hard on flexible safety plans to deal with threats, disasters and incidents like Monday's shooting.
But, he said, "I also firmly believe that no matter how you plan, you can't have a rational plan in the face of irrational acts, and that's what we're seeing at Virginia Tech."