Virginia Tech Officials Put Own Safety First, Waited to Alert Students to Shooting Threat

Going on three years after the tragic Virginia Tech shootings that claimed 33 lives, word now comes that some university administrators warned their families and locked themselves in before the rest of the campus was alerted more than an hour later to the threat of a rampaging gunman.

According to an Associated Press story, even garbage collection was halted on the Blacksburg, VA campus before students and faculty were told of the danger.

There’s been little news in the past two years about what University of Hawaii officials are doing to improve safety on our local campuses, but the news in October 2007 wasn’t good.

On October 25, 2007, UH officials were told that a man riding a city bus was overheard threatening to kill 30 UH students. Officials responded by issuing an email alert to students and staff, but other potential channels such as loud speakers and the campus radio station were not used. Several posts here at CHORE in October 2007 noted deficiencies in the University's communications plan.

Students Left Unaware

Students and others subsequently said they never received the alert and were unaware of a potential threat to their safety. Administration officials later said the communications plan needed improving.

It’s time for the media and others to ask for details on what’s been done to improve campus security in Hawaii. The latest revelations from Virginia Tech show why officials need this kind of “help” from outside their comfort zone – why citizens have an appropriate role in urging officials to prepare for and respond to emergencies.

Left to their own devices, officials have demonstrated all too often that they don't respond appropriately.