In a society that has its fair share of violent campus and office shooting headlines, some organizations are looking to better equip people with the skills to recognize threats and how to react in those situations.
The Professional Development Institute at Oklahoma City Community College hosts a workshop designed to help frontline employees spot and deal with potential workplace violence.
Active Shooter: Homicide in the Workplace Workshop addresses issues such as knowing your peers, having an individual plan of action in case of a shooter emergency, a survival mindset and the role of law enforcement.
Registrar Stephanie Baird previously worked at Oklahoma City Community College for about a year and went through a situation in which campus information was not disseminated frequently in midst of an alleged campus threat.
While Baird was at OCCC, the institution had a situation where they thought there was an active shooter on campus that was later proven to be false. There was miscommunication of a threat surrounding the campus and the alert snowballed into a shooter being on campus.
“After the alert was out it became a game of telephone between everyone and got interpreted as active shooter on campus,” Baird said.
In search of looking for the suspect, an OCCC security guard misfired his gun, which caused panic to surrounding areas.
“Students upstairs heard the gunshot and began to start running and screaming,” Baird said. “The alarm went off, we went back into lockdown and was there for awhile.”
There was no communication after the lockdown was over. It was not until Baird returned home when she discovered that there had not been an active shooter on campus.
Baird said she’s grateful to have gone through this event and made it out safely, despite the tense situation.
“I am fortunate that I have the education, training and tools to prepare for something like this in the future,” Baird said.
The OCCC workshop aims to train people on how to better handle situations like the one Baird experienced.
Oklahoma Christian University has a plan of action in place for worst case scenarios. There are also designated departments that regularly attend training and conferences to keep current on the issue.
In April of 2011, Oklahoma Christian Security Department transitioned into a police squad, in response to university violence around the nation. Police Captain, Lee Fields said the department has taken a hard look at the safety of the entire campus and knows the importance of a secure campus.
“We read the newspaper like everyone else, so we certainly recognize that school shootings can happen anywhere and take the issue very seriously,” Fields said.
Oklahoma Christian Police Officers participate in a national training called ALICE, which is an acronym for alert, lockdown, inform, counter and evacuate. This provides a level of proficiency for the officers to be prepared for an active shooter incident.
“An active shooter is probably one of the most dangerous positions any one could be involved in and our offices are equipped to meet that challenge head on,” Fields said.
From a communications standpoint, Risa Forrester, the university’s public information officer is the first person to address media outlets in every circumstance.
“We have a great crisis communication team that includes several people around the campus and we are using some good technology to assist us in the first sign of trouble,” Forrester said.
The crisis team works very closely with Oklahoma Christian Notify, which is a system that automatically sends out information in the form of text messages, emails and onto social media platforms.
“The institution immediately sends out the alert messages and regularly updates the campus for further information or instructions,” Forrester said. “We actually have improved our methods based on previous experiences.”
Last semester the university went into lockdown because of a robbery at a nearby bank and the possibility that the suspect could be moving in the direction of campus.
In situations like these, Forrester said new information is sent out about every 15 minutes when there is an emergency.
“We are constantly looking for ways to employ best practices, because safety and the communication surrounding that for students is the most important thing,” Forrester said.
For more information visit on the OCCC workshop visit here.
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