Staying safe on campus during an active shooting

By Ashley Diaz •

With the five-year anniversary of the Marjory Stoneman Doug- las High School shooting on Feb. 14, as well as the Michigan State University shooting on Feb. 13, NSU students are concerned about safety on campus during an active shooting.

“I’ve thought about taking extra precautions and making sure I know where I can go for safety, so I can protect myself,” said Sabrina Solaman, sophomore English major.

When dealing with an active shooter, NSU Public Safety advises students to use the run, hide and fight protocol.

First, run away from the area and then call 911. If running away is not possible, find a safe space to hide from the shooter. Finally, as a last resort, if running or hiding is impossible, fight using any surrounding objects to incapacitate the shooter. This advice is approved by the FBI and is part of the training given to officers.

“Where to hide really depends on where the student is and how many shooters are involved,” said Paul Turner, director of Public  Safety  and  Emergency Management.

Students can also stay safe by using NSU’s Blue Light Emergency Phone System. The tele- phones are silver towers in various locations across campus. If students feel that they are in danger, they can go to a blue light telephone and press the red emergency button on it. When they press it, it puts students in contact with a dispatcher and flashes blue lights, so officers around campus can easily find them.

“We talk to students about the Blue Light system every year during orientation, so they can know how to use it. It is also in the campus safety handbook,” said Turner, who added that NSU’s campus is safe because there is a blend of public safety officers, Davie officers and allied contract security. These officers train every year to protect students and faculty from shooters. “Annually we have an active shooter drill on campus and the last active shooter drill was in August,” said Turner.

This past August, Public Safe- ty had the annual active shooter drill in the Rosenthal building and University Center. The drill also included 158 law enforcement, emergency management and personnel officers on campus from other cities and counties. They train every year during a time where there are less students on campus to get law enforcement familiar with the campus. The Rosenthal building and University Center have more active shooter training because there are more students in those buildings.

Turner said Public Safety trains all new staff.

“Throughout the summer, we trained 1,500 faculty to keep them up to speed on our physical security, like the intruder lock key,” said Turner.

Faculty and staff carry with them an intruder lock key, which can lock doors on campus with yellow tape on the handles from the inside.

To report suspicious activity, students can download the SaferWatch app on their phones. By going to GetSaferWatch.com, students can directly communicate with Public Safety about threats on campus.

There will also be a university-wide test of the Emergency Notification System on March 28.

“Over the next year or two we are going to start rolling out actual active shooter training to students,” said Turner.

For future training, students will train one-on-one with an officer on how to use the Blue Light Phone System. They will learn about the run, hide and fight protocol, watch Public Safety’s active shooter video and ask questions they may have regarding safety.

“We are trying to get the people to be situationally aware to report things,” said Turner. “If reported to us, we will take action because we want to know and to help.”