Oklahoma Christian University’s Dean of Students, Neil Arter, and Oklahoma Christian Chief of Police, Greg Giltner, hosted an Emergency Preparedness meeting for administrative assistants on Thursday, April 22. This meeting covered the Run, Hide and Fight plan for an active shooter situation. Oklahoma Christian has used this plan in lieu of Shelter in Place since 2018, said Arter.
“Our policy before was to shelter-in-place and not run,” Arter said. “I sensed in the training last week that some people had not heard run-hide-fight, so there were some new people hearing that for some reason. It’s not necessarily new, but it is continued to be a different policy than those people are normally used to.”
The plan lists techniques for each step. Anyone involved in an active shooter situation should run away from the situation as soon as possible, leaving all personal belongings behind. People can travel with others but should not stay to convince others to leave with them. If running is not feasible, hiding is the next step. Everyone should bar entrances and exits, turn off their phones or interior lights, and remain out of sight and quiet. As a last resort, the plan suggests fighting with whatever is on hand. The plan says if the shooter is busy dodging flying objects, they cannot shoot. Giltner put it in more Biblical terms.
“Fight like you’re the third monkey trying to get on the Ark,” Giltner said.
Throughout the plan, the importance of individual decision is key. The plan states, “Do NOT be a hero. Get out. You are responsible for yourself and your own safety.” Arter said heroes are primarily made by accidents and trying to actively become one is dangerous.
“(The police) have a better chance of ending it,” Arter said. “Someone running at a cop going ‘they’re over here, they’re over here’ may be making themselves a target. What we need them to do is just get out of the way so the police officers can do their job.”
The Department of Homeland Security posted a guide for the Run, Hide and Fight plan regarding an active shooter emergency. It is accessible from their website.
The concern regarding active shooter preparation comes in a year already strife with gun violence. A mass shooting includes any shooting with four or more injured gunshot victims. The Gun Violence Archive reported 147 mass shootings throughout the nation for 2021. A recent update from NBC News showed an extra 13 shootings as of April 26. Only one mass shooting occurred in Oklahoma on February 2.
Arter also said the campus has been relatively violence-free in the past. According to U.S. News, Oklahoma Christian had two on-campus criminal offenses in 2016, and none in 2017 or 2018. College Factual reported 15 safety-related incidents involving students on or near campus in 2019. Over 41% of these incidents were arrests for major crimes, while the remaining 58% were disciplinary actions. Arter said the campus is safer because of its proximity to law enforcement.
“We have really good relationships with the Oklahoma City Police, the Edmond Police, the sheriff’s office and the FBI is literally four miles down the Turnpike,” Arter said. “We’re gonna handle this on our own for 10 minutes, and after that, there will be more law enforcement on this campus than we’ve ever seen.”
Safety measures on campus include emergency call boxes, street lights throughout the Eagle Trail and security cameras and locks in every building.
Lisa Gellar, the state affairs manager at the nonprofit Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, said mass shootings often come from trouble at home.
“Some of these high-lethality events are inherently random, but if you include some of the events in private spaces, the role of domestic violence in mass shootings is large,” Gellar said.
Arter said looking to prevent the situation before it escalates is key.
“If you know something, say something,” Arter said.
Arter said when students who are worried about their peers tell faculty members, the faculty members do check in on the student. Even if there is no threat, every worry is legitimate.
“Even the people we are checking up on are like ‘okay, I can see how that would be concerning, and I appreciate you for checking up on that,’” Arter said. “People usually take that really well. So, I tell students all the time, tell us, tell campus police, if you see something on campus that looks out of line.”
A female senior on campus, who preferred to remain anonymous, said she had never been in a dangerous situation, but there were some places she wished felt safer.
“I hesitate to walk back to the apartments alone at night, even with my pepper spray,” she said. “The walk on the north side of Garvey/HBC is very desolate and unsupervised; there are too many places a predator could be hiding.”
She said when she did reach out to an officer in the past, they were helpful.
“The chief of police was very understanding and gave me his cellphone number to call if I ever saw something suspicious or even just wanted one of the cops to walk with me to my car or apartment at night,” she said.
Coleman Dillahunty, a junior creative media major, said the fire drills he went through were orderly, and the police responded well when he reached out.
“The response on the phone was quick, the officer helpful, and I feel like they were able to help,” Dillahunty said. “They either told me what was going on, or they affirmed to me that they were on their way to go look into it.”
He said although the campus felt safe and the police were helpful, there were a few things he would change.
“I believe the way things are currently if an emergency event were to take place, I do not feel we have enough police to properly protect the students,” Dillahunty said. “I also feel the school needs to go over tornado protocols again. The last time we had a dangerous storm near the school, the safe area was too full to accommodate me and my roommate safely.”
Oklahoma Christian’s emergency plans will continue to be reviewed in the future for adequate safety measures.
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