LHU takes safety precautions against school shootings

College campuses across the nation, including Lock Haven University (LHU), have been taking safety precautions to protect students after the Michigan State shooting on Feb. 13. According to LHU Chief of Police, Tim Stringer, campus police are taking the following measures to create a safe environment: 

• All three campus police participated within Commonwealth University in a three-day Active Shooter Training with external stakeholders on Jan. 10-12.
• Each semester, police send out an email containing instructions and video asking students, faculty, and staff to review what to do during an active shooting. The last email was sent on Jan. 24. 
• Police teach ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Escape) training to groups and organizations across campus.
• On Nov. 1, 2022, all campuses participated in an Emergency Management Exercise with external stakeholders on managing critical incidents.
• All campuses use the RAVE system, an emergency alert system utilized across each university to send out important emergency information via text notification.
• During the month of January, Public Safety participated in an active shooter table-top exercise with a local school.
  
  

While LHU students acknowledge that on-campus preventative measures are a good start, senior Annie Barnhart states how she wants to see more precautions established to ease students’ minds.

“I think there should be more security to get into buildings,” she said. “We should have to scan in with our IDs to all buildings. We have scanning to get into Fairview and Smith, why not have them for all buildings?”

Even people who study human nature and psychology, like professor Christine Offutt, are perplexed about why mass shootings happen.

“It is human nature to want to know about the motives and mental health of mass shooters,” she said. “We feel like we might be able to prevent bad things from happening, if we know what type of person commits such acts. Sadly, there’s no such thing as a prototypical shooter whom we can recognize and stop before harm occurs.”

Offutt also makes a point about gun laws in relation to students’ safety.

“Students often report feeling safer when stricter gun laws or policies are enacted but would-be shooters don’t obey laws,” she said. “The laws only give us a false sense of security, which can be dangerous.”

Offutt reiterates the importance of LHU’s preventative measures to combat school shootings: “We all need to take ownership in protecting our campus community by reporting anything that seems suspicious. A campaign that spells out what sort of behaviors are suspicious and normalizes reporting them to Public Safety is how we can increase safety on our campus.”

In addition to campus safety measures, students are also taking their own precautions.

“I am always on constant alert,” Barnhart said. “I think a way to kind of ease my anxiety about that is [by] always keeping my doors locked, keeping my windows locked, making sure I know before opening the door who’s there, and even keeping stuff on my keychain.”

Stringer reminds students to be conscious of their surroundings even in their daily routines. He also asks students to not leave doors open or unlocked.

Members of the LHU community can call Public Safety at (570) 484-2278 or go to the Public Safety Department in Glennon to report any suspicious activity.