NDR: Rant

[munkii]

I feel like a post-whore today, but lots of things are happening!

About 20 minute ago, a message went out that there is a gunman on campus, and everyone should seek shelter. But...that's it.

People are still waltzing around campus like nothing's going on. Emergency Management is not ushering people to shelter. I'm glad everyone's calm, but shouldn't there be more happening? IDK, this has never happened before; so, I'm not sure what to expect. It's also occurring to me now that my office (probably many offices, in fact) has no plan on what to do if/when this happens. 

This is just bizarre.

[mrs.jacinthe]

Whoa, what?

Is it a drill? BE SAFE.

[emoflamingo]

Yeah, I'm freaking out a little for you. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!

[munkii]

I locked myself in my office. If other people don't care, that's on them. I hope EMS sends out a message that it was a drill or that it's over, but there's nothing yet.

[kaylie]

That's weird. You haven't drilled for this before? We do it pretty often here.

Stay away from any windows and close the blinds/curtains if you have them. Lock yourself in your office and don't leave until you're told otherwise.

[munkii]

No drills before.

[darkling_glory]

Call 911. That's what I'd do.

Be safe!!

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using proboards

[munkii]

Update: Police are actively investigating the sighting. We're supposed to remain in shelter location. I hope this ends soon.

[kitty]

How scary! I hope it turns out to be nothing.

[Deleted]

Wow, so bizarre. I hope everything turns out ok!!

[munkii]

We're free! Lockdown is over. No news other than that.

[emoflamingo]

Good that your safe, but I'm surprised they haven't updated that the perp was caught or anything!

[halleesmom]

I hate when they don't give an update, it's like nothing ever happened. I was going to Brownsburg this afternoon and saw a ton of police cars headed east, I guess that is where they were going.

[katecoop]

I heard about this, glad you're safe. Did they ever find the guy?

[munkii]

No, they found no one. I have a feeling that the person who made the initial report didn't really see what she thought she saw, but better safe than sorry.

I hope the university realizes what an epic disaster yesterday would have been IF there really was some crazed person with a gun on campus. Communication from the emergency office was poor and lacking, no clear direction was given, even two hours into the lockdown there were still people wandering around campus and not in secure locations. Not all shelter areas were secure; some of the wondering people were walking freely into buildings without issue. The university refused to commit to a cancellation of classes and would only say classes would resume after an all clear was given; considering a decent percentage of the students commute to campus from greater than 30 minutes away, this really is not an effective way to manage the situation.

There is an alert system available through text that students and staff can set up to receive, but that doesn't help visitors to the university, the hospital, the NCAA, etc. Additionally, the most detailed information was only going out through Facebook and twitter--not very helpful for those who didn't and don't have access to those things. The main concern during the lockdown should have been effectively communicating with people on campus and in the community. It is clear the person in charge of communications in EMC has no (formal) training in emergency management or communications; in fact, other than a few random classes, he has no training at all.

As an aside, something that really ticked me off yesterday was that the person in charge of sending out emergency notifications took time to write a blog post. It was very poorly written: He made assumptions, he made grammatical errors, and he clearly did not proof and edit the post. For Joe Schmoe the blogger, it doesn’t matter if it’s not perfect. This blog post, however, represented the university. Someone with an inkling of sense would know better than to post what he posted because it reflected very poorly on the university.

They won’t, but heads should roll.

End rant.