Active shooter hoaxes put colleges across the country on edge
TaMya Bracy
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) — Several college campuses in the region and across the United States are off to a nerve-wracking start of the school year.
There has been a wave of active shooter hoaxes sweeping across college campuses in the country. According to The Associated Press, law enforcement responded to calls claiming there were active shooters at the University of Arkansas, Northern Arizona University, Iowa State, Kansas State, the University of Colorado-Boulder and the University of New Hampshire on Monday.
On Tuesday, law enforcement received even more calls for the University of Kentucky, West Virginia University and Central Georgia Technical College, according to AP.
These waves of threats can cause terror among students, given how common school shootings have become in the U.S.
Jill Voltmer, chief of police at MoWest, said that the university does have precautions in place if a shooter were to come on campus.
“We have a safety plan, an emergency management plan that we continually review and keep close at hand,” Voltmer said. “And we try to go through all of those points and continually update them. Listen, watch and see everything, anything that looks out of place, she said.
Along with the emergency management plan, MoWest has an alert system that sends out messages. It’s called the Griffon Alert System.
“They are multifaceted and they come in several different ways,” Voltmer said. “They come in email, they come in text messages and they take over your computer screen. We also have annunciators, which are noises that come out of it with the basic information. So that is how correct current information is given by the university and in any type of situation like that,” she said.
Most students don’t think about a shooter coming on campus, even though it’s common. MoWest freshman, Summer Palmer, school should be a safe environment and you shouldn’t have to think about a shooter coming on campus.
“When you’re at school, you should have the mindset of like socializing, being a friend, going to hang out with your friends, focusing on schoolwork, building an education, going to school to, you know, have fun,” Palmer said.