After shooting, South Bay colleges focus on security
Daily Breeze 4/18/07
She quickly called the sheriff's station on campus at her own Wilmington college, looking for some assurances.
"I asked them, 'Do you all know what to do to guide us?,' " she said. "I said, 'Tell me you all practice this.' "
Around the South Bay and Harbor Area as well as throughout the country, security forces and administrators at colleges and universities are reviewing their safety procedures in the wake of the deadliest shooting rampage in American history.
Some have found holes in their own security plans. For example, no local schools -- not Harbor, El Camino College near Torrance, California State University, Dominguez Hills, in Carson or Loyola Marymount University in Westchester -- actively practice schoolwide drills involving a campus shooting scenario.
Harbor College, a member of the Los Angeles Community College District, contracts with the Sheriff's Department for policing services.
Spink specifically asked the college's public safety officials about emergency plans at her own campus. She was told that the two-year school has never had an emergency drill to practice its response in the case of a school shooting.
Sheriff's Sgt. Harry Van, the highest-ranking law enforcement official on campus, said the campus would either be locked down or evacuated if there was a shooting.
"We have a PA system to make announcements," Van said. "It's located in our office, and there's another one somewhere on campus."
The campus tries to have lockdown drills each semester, Van said, but that doesn't always happen.
Larance Johnson, program director for the national School Violence Resource Center, said emergency-preparedness plans are crucial during campus crises.
"They should have an active crisis plan where they actually do drills," Johnson said. "The purpose of pre-planning is that your brain does not work the same way in a crisis. If you don't think about it before then, when it occurs, it can turn into a greater crisis -- not knowing what to do and when to do it. ... It can cost more lives."
Spink also acknowledged Harbor College would likely have problems identifying anyone killed in the event of a campus shooting.
"We have rosters and would have to sit down with faculty members to check identities," Spink said. "We've started collecting e-mail addresses" to establish a collegewide list serve by September.
El Camino College and California State University, Dominguez Hills each have their own police department with armed officers who would respond first in a campus emergency.
Emergency planners at El Camino College hope to have a schoolwide emergency drill this year, but have never had one, said Emergency Planning Coordinator Rocky Bonura.
"Providing drills of this type is very disruptive to the whole campus and are cost-prohibitive," Bonura said. "We drill building by building. By the end of the year, we want a campus-wide drill. It's a goal. It takes a lot of planning, coordination and time."
Bonura said each of the campus's 29 buildings have a designated staff member who would act as a building captain during emergencies. That person has been trained and will communicate with campus police during emergencies, he said.
"We have our own search and rescue, medical, and crisis-intervention teams," Bonura said. "If we need outside assistance, we would call for local police departments."
Loyola Marymount University is secured by unarmed public safety officers, who would call the Los Angeles Police Department in the event of an emergency, said college President Robert Lawton.
Lawton sent a letter Tuesday to faculty and students in response to the Virginia Tech killings.
He wrote that the college purchased a software system that can automatically alert students by phone of emergencies. The college has moved the start date of the phone-communication system from later this year to next week, he wrote.
"We are reviewing our own safety and preparedness policies and plans in light of this event," Lawton wrote.
Cal State Dominguez Hills Police Chief Susan Sloan said she is also reviewing emergency preparedness plans in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre.
Dominguez Hills does have evacuation drills once a semester but does not drill for active-shooter scenarios, Sloan said. She said they focus on training the officers, rather than the entire campus, in the best ways to respond.
"We're going to reschedule the active-shooter training with the Sheriff's Department, and make sure everyone is current in their training," Sloan said. "I'll meet with the department to brainstorm about what we're going to do, our best guess depending on what we would do in this type of situation.
"The active-shooter scenario tactics are that you go in with whatever manpower you have, and as quickly as you can to try and stop the suspect."