Although those who deal with emergency situations say they can never fully prepare for a situation such as Monday’s shooting at Virginia Tech, they do hold drills to ensure they can deal with such an incident.
Last month, the University conducted a train derailment exercise, in which various departments within the school worked together to figure out the kinks in handling such an emergency situation.
“Any major incident on campus has to include many different departments,” John Dailey, deputy director of Campus Police, said. “So we have to practice drills with those different departments.”
Sgt. Jon Barnwell of Campus Police said his group discussed Monday how it would respond in a situation such as Virginia Tech’s.
“In the state of North Carolina, we have mandated training on active shooters with Raleigh and Wake County police departments,” Barnwell said. “We would respond tactically and eliminate the threat.”
According to Dailey, Campus Police has practiced several times in the last two years handling a shooter situation.
“We are very proficient because we’ve done it many times,” Dailey said. “We practice out at the [Campus Police] building and we practice out at the middle school.”
At any time, a ranking official, who is not necessarily the chief of police, has to make calls such as locking down a building.
“[The person in charge] has to step back and manage the tactical response if it is an immediate threat to the community,” Dailey said.
NCSU’s Environmental Health and Safety division has also practiced such emergencies on numerous occasions, according to David Rainer, associate vice chancellor of EH&S. He said the group would try to communicate through students via a number of ways, including the Internet, e-mail and the campus radio station.
“When we practice emergency planning and have drills, then the highest ranking participant calls the shots,” Rainer said. “We don’t wait to connect the dots.”
Although they practice, Rainer said they can never fully prepare for an emergency such as this one. But the University does have guidelines for dealing with one.
“In an emergency you don’t know who is going to be around,” Rainer said. “Everyone could be away from campus, so if John Dailey were here, he would have to make the call.”
Another important aspect on the back-end of an emergency is helping those who are affected by it — a job the Counseling Center said it is prepared to handle.
Lee Salter, the director of the Counseling Center, said he remembers Columbine, although he said there wasn’t much of an impact on campus. But he said that was much different from this situation.
“That was a high school, not a neighboring state,” Salter said.
He said although the center is busy due to the stressful time of the year, he encouraged all students to take advantage of the resource.
“We’ve never turned anyone away,” Salter said.
According to Salter, this time of year can be a difficult one already for students. Symptoms of depression include trouble sleeping, bouts of crying, difficulty concentrating and irritability.
“When something like this does happen, I think there is an increased awareness that it can happen,” Salter said.
