Western Oregon Journal

Issue date: 11/30/07 Section: Headlines

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The sixteenth of April will mark the first anniversary of the day that 23-year-old Cho Seung-hui turned Virginia Tech, and our country, upside down. His shooting spree left 32 people dead and several others injured before he took his own life. With the spring will come this reminder of how vulnerable human life is, as well as the question: what can be done to avert such a tragedy in the future?

When asked what Western, and the Oregon University System (OUS) as a whole, has done in response to the shootings at Virginia Tech, Jay Carey, the director of Public Safety, stated that OUS "has things in the works, but with each campus being unique unto itself, it is difficult to devise one plan that will work statewide."

One of the reasons that the number of victims at Virginia Tech was not higher was because students and instructors took action themselves and barricaded their classroom doors. Some students survived by controlling their panic and playing dead.

However, at Western many classrooms have doors that open towards the hallways, making it nearly impossible for occupants to block an intruder's entry. Director Carey said that ways to secure those classroom doors in case of a lock-down are currently being researched. But it never hurts to scope out an escape route in case an emergency presents itself.

The Oregon University System is also currently working on processes for a mass notification system. According to Director Carey, it was just such a system that was attributed to saving lives at Delaware State University in September of this year when a student began shooting at other students on campus. He said, "They were able to get messages out, because of [the incident at] Virginia Tech."

Director Carey believes that the best type of system would allow emergency messages to be transmitted quickly via phone, text messages, e-mail and a public address system so detailed instructions can be announced. Emergency sirens may work, but they are most likely not enough on their own. They require being tested on a regular basis and history shows that after hearing them frequently, people inadvertently ignore them. For schools that are located in areas that have severe weather or fire sirens, it would be difficult to know exactly why a siren is going off, or precisely where the danger is.

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