In an instant, a typical Tuesday afternoon turned into a chaotic scramble on Southwestern College’s campus as word spread that gunshots were fired on the third floor of the library.
Confusion turned into panic on Feb. 26 when a faculty member screamed for people to back away from the library. Crowds ran through the criss-crossing pathways of the campus grounds. Those inside classrooms became fearful, not knowing what to do. The campus was in a state of total disorder for almost an hour.
As time passed, authorities determined there was no shooter on campus. It was a false alarm.
Yet, in the days and weeks that followed, this incident raised questions about how well SWC is prepared for these situations, especially if the next time the threat is real.
At a town hall meeting in March, some members of the college community told SWC President Dr. Kindred Murillo they felt confused and frightened.
“It was also an important learning [experience, “Murillo said. “We are a learning institution and we are always, always learning.”
There was a lack of training and few of those on campus were prepared for this situation.
After the chaos, students, staff and faculty said they were confused with not only what was happening, but also what procedures to take during the situation. Gianfranco Dongo, a 19-year-old First Year Experience peer mentor, said he did not know what to do when he encountered the incident.
“At the time, there wasn’t really a clear explanation of what was going on,” he said. “So to be honest I didn’t really know how to react, but I knew that if there was a safety concern my number one priority was my students that I was with.”
Emergency Management Coordinator Zach Jones provides drills and exercise trainings to students, staff and faculty on campus. The trainings include active threats also known as alert, lockdown, inform, counter, and evacuate (A.L.I.C.E.). There are even evacuation drills, fire safety, earthquake preparedness and response, personal preparedness and disaster mitigation.
However, these trainings are not mandatory for those on campus. They are instead offered to students, faculty, and staff interested throughout the school year by the campus emergency preparedness team. Jones said all of the trainings are completely free and open to everyone on campus and in the community.
“At this time I don’t know if they’re making it a requirement for them,” Jones said. “But I know in the town hall meeting they were saying that they were going to make it mandatory for certain campus-wide drills, which I’m all for and really hope we do that.”
SWC sent out an alert message to all contacts during the incident to let people know when they were evacuating the library and locking down the campus. However, some felt that the messages caused confusion and were sent in an untimely manner. Adjunct Faculty Todd Johnson said he had to send out a couple of emails to his students because they were uncertain if they had go to class that night.
“It took awhile for them to clear it up, but then students didn’t see the second email necessarily right away,” Johnson said.
Mexican-American Studies Professor Gerardo Rios was guiding students away from the library during the incident. As an instructor on campus, his main concern was where staff and faculty should fit a training schedule during the school semester.
“Do we stress this point on opening day when everyone is mandated to be here or do we actually take the initiative to get the additional training ourselves?” Rios asked. “Is this something that we are going to do as a department? I mean no one has really touched base on that. It’s not a matter of grave concern, it should be but it is not.”
At the March 14 town hall meeting, SWC Police Chief Dave Nighswonger said there is a challenge in trying to get the information out to everyone.
“Unfortunately, few of us are prepared for this. A few of our staff members are really trained with some notable exceptions,” Nighswonger said. “A campus like this, the district, we have classes going on all throughout the day, days and nights, and reaching everybody is difficult. And reaching the students is particularly difficult. Our only source to reach them is through their professors.”
Murillo said out of the 25 incidents she has been involved in as an administrator, this was the most unusual one. She acknowledged that it was a traumatic event for a number of students.
“I think this was incredibly scary for some,” Murillo said. “I think some of you were scared and I know it was really tense for a few minutes. And we want to acknowledge that with you today.”
Following the incident, SWC Mental Health Counselor Dr. Clarence Amaral had several people visit the Personal Wellness Service located in the Student Services Center. The therapists met with those who struggled with feeling secure on campus grounds.
“There were people anecdotally, that everybody [therapists] saw at least two people. Some therapists saw more,” Amaral said. “I think it was mainly people coming in with triggers, or people reacting or that they felt they weren’t safe. With so much going on, it’s important that they had debriefing with students.”
