Issue date: 4/30/08 Section: News

Students of the ROTC program participate in a staged shooting in Sacramento State's Draper Hall to test the campus' response to emergency Students of the ROTC program participate in a staged shooting in Sacramento State's Draper Hall to test the campus' response to emergency situations and its recently implemented system of text message alerts to the campus community on Friday. [Click to enlarge]

Sac State President Alexander Gonzalez feels for his cell phone at the staged emergency drill at Draper Hall on Friday. [Click to enlarge]

Draper Hall became the scene of an active shooter scenario on Friday as University Police practiced tactics and tested the newly completed Emergency Response System. The system uses cell phone text messages and e-mails to the campus community about emergency situations.

The system works by sending its first batch of text messages and e-mails to "primary responders," which include police, building supervisors and other safety personnel on campus. The messages and e-mails are then sent to students, faculty and staff.

The messages are pre-written and contain different information based on the type of emergency. The text messages contain the location of the emergency and what steps the campus community should take.

Police blocked off Draper Hall at about 1 p.m. on Friday. The exercise began shortly before 2:30 p.m. Felix Barba, Associated Students Inc. director of Arts and Letters, received the first text message four minutes after the emergency call came in.

Air Force ROTC students from Sacramento State volunteered to be victims and shooters. The actors simulated gunshot wounds using red food coloring, yogurt and chocolate. This was done to make the situation seem more real, said Kelly Clark, University Police sergeant and public information officer at Sac State.

Kathleen Redmond, junior communication studies major and one of the victims, said she volunteered because the exercise helps campus officials to prepare for emergency situations. "School shootings do happen," Redmond said. "It is good to see that our campus is doing something to be ready." Redmond lay near a door with a gunshot wound to her right thigh and a head injury. She was one of the first students evacuated; police carried her from the building.

Two other students lay nearby, shot dead. A bloody handprint smeared across the wall and pools of blood on the floor helped create a sense of real-life tragedy.

The first team of police that entered the building went after the shooters, while the second began to evacuate students. The entire time, the police radio crackled with conversation. Clark explained that communication is one of the problems faced by police responding to a crisis. Too many people on the radio can make it difficult for personnel to communicate easily.

Among police at the scene, dispatchers, and commanding officers stationed at the command post, there can be up to 25 people talking at once, Clark said. Frequently, the conversation was inaudible. This is due to poor radio reception in brick buildings, such as Draper Hall, another element that added to the realism of the scenario, Clark said.

During this test, the residence halls also conducted a drill that had never been done before. Residents in the halls were told to shelter themselves in place during the drill, said Cynthia Cockrill, director of Housing and Resident Life. They were asked to figure out how to barricade the door, shut the windows and turn off electronics and lights. This drill was done to help illustrate possible methods in which the residence halls could be made safer during an emergency. One failure of the system was notification, Cockrill said. "We will be purchasing some bullhorns and placing them at all the desks to help get the message out," Cockrill said.

By 3 p.m., the yellow "Police Line Do Not Cross" tape came down, victims started to clean their wounds and campus police and officials began to discuss the successes and failures of the system. The text message notification system worked as expected, several observers said.

Sac State President Alexander Gonzalez experienced one of the few glitches of the day. The system notified his office, but did not send a text message to his phone. This glitch was corrected before the exercise was completed. The problem may have been incorrect settings on his cell phone. Others did not receive the first text message until several minutes after the first text messages came in. This is because of the dispatcher and is out of the hands of campus personnel to control.

Gonzalez said that one thing he would like to see for the future is more methods of notifying the campus community, particularly in the aftermath. "That's when a lot of the rumors start, and we want to be able to quell that as soon as possible," Gonzalez said. "We want to remain as cool and calm as possible." This exercise was conducted in order to identify what some of those methods may be, Clark said.

The Emergency Notification System was designed to be installed in three phases. The active shooter scenario test signified the completion of the second phase. This means that all students, staff and faculty now have the ability to receive e-mails and text messages during emergencies.

The first phase included the installation of the software, rewiring many buildings on campus and setting up the messaging system to personnel considered to be first responders.

The final phase is still in discussion. This phase will allow for e-mail and text messages to be sent to off-campus persons, such as family of Sac State students, local news media and any other person who may need to be notified in an emergency situation. A timeline for finalizing the third stage has not yet been established.

A public forum will be held in May to discuss emergency situations, such as an active shooter on campus, University Police Chief Ken Barnett said. The exact date of the forum has not yet been established.

This system was initially identified as a safety upgrade in 2006, and received funding from the state and federal government following school shootings at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University. It is designed to help alert the campus community to emergency situations on campus.

Students must register to receive text message alerts about emergency situations on campus. Registration can be done by going to www.csus.edu/ENS. The Emergency Notification System also distributes e-mails to the campus community through SacLink accounts.

Derek Fleming can be reached at dfleming@statehornet.com.

Click here to read about a field exercise in which ROTC cadets trained for combat with automatic weapons and "grenades."

Claire Elise Padgett can be reached at cpadgett@statehornet.com.

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