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A single siren brought Drury University to a standstill Thursday. The siren is the latest step in the university’s emergency plan in the event of a school shooting. KSMU’s Erika Brame was on the scene and files this report.
A loud, constant siren went off on the Drury campus at 10:00 a.m. while Caitlyn Greene was sitting in her accounting class. “So we were just sitting there and then about half an hour after class started the sirens went off. And so our teacher she was really calm, she was like ok this is our drill put your stuff on the floor and then come sit against the wall. So it’s what we did, we turned off the lights, everyone was quite, and then we sat there for about half an hour,” she said.
She says she feels safer knowing her campus has a plan of action.Sarene Deeds is the Director of Safety and Security at Drury University she says the drill is part of a series of emergency alerts put together by the University.
“So we started implementing new measures, we got a text messaging system, we got a mass notification on our internet DENA Drury Emergency Notification Alert System, of course mass e-mail, we purchased a siren last year,” she said.
In those mass e-mails was a video on what to do if there is a shooter on campus.Deeds says the drill brought some fixable issues to her attention such as students who might be walking outside during a possible shooting.
“We have just told them to find cover because if the doors are locked we’ve instructed faculty and staff not to let people in because you don’t know if they’re actually the shooter. We do need to put that in our emergency crisis plan because we don’t address if they are caught outside and can’t get in a building what they need to do,” she said.
She admits the program on a whole works well but it’s not perfect nor will it ever be.Having a plan of action is always a step in the right direction.For KSMU News I’m Erika Brame.
