ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT Printing the news, sounding the alarm, and raising hell since 1899
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2013
DAILYWILDCAT.COM
VOLUME 106 • ISSUE 89
WHAT IF ARIZONA WERE NEXT? Notable school shootings in the U.S.
Although there have been a great deal more school shootings than those pictured on the map, the Daily Wildcat chose to narrow down the list to mass shootings on school campuses based on the FBI definition: According to FBI classifications, an individual is identified as a mass murderer if he kills four or more people (not including himself) in a single incident. Except in the cases of Columbine and Westside Middle School, one individual carried out the shootings. In a few cases, the individual killed only three other people.
SOURCES: THE NEW YORK TIMES, TIME MAGAZINE, MOTHER JONES MAGAZINE
Notable school shootings in the U.S. 1927: Bath School — Michigan 1966: University of Texas, Austin
GRAPHIC BY KEDI XIA/ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT
1976: California State University, Fullerton
Recent shootings like at Sandy Hook have raised a number of questions related to the gun debate, like how schools prepare for armed threats. SHELBY THOMAS Arizona Daily Wildcat
1989: Cleveland Elementary School — California 1992: Lindhurst High School — California 1996: Frontier Middle School — Washington 1998: Westside Middle School — Arkansas 1997: West Paducah school — Kentucky 1999: Columbine High School — Colorado
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While officers worked on gaining control of the ou’re on your way to class, flipping through dog-eared psychology notes 2002: UA School of Nursing as you cram for your first exam of the semester. How could you have situation and minimizing harm, other members forgotten about the test? You know your professor mentioned it at least of campus would be made aware of the situation 2005: Red Lake School — Minnesota three times last week, but here you are, frantically reviewing last week’s at hand. The UA has a few key ways to keep students, faculty, staff and parents informed. notes as you dodge a blur of bikers on your way to class. UAlert is the most efficient and timely way You break into a brisk jog to make it on time. Wiping the sweat from your forehead, 2006: West Nickel Mines School — you swing open the door of the Harvill Building and slip into an empty seat in the to receive notifications about critical incidents Pennsylvania lecture hall. You wave at your friend in the second row and reach for the zipper on affecting any of the UA campuses, according to the CERT website. Students, faculty, staff and parents your backpack. But your hand doesn’t make it there before the shots ring out. 2007: Virginia Tech Bang! Bang! Bang! The insignificant stresses of tardiness and tests evaporate as all have the option to register for this service to the screams of your peers, your friends and your professors fill the air around you. keep up-to-speed with on-campus happenings. 2008: Northern Illinois University Someone is shooting. You are trembling, petrified, and you don’t know what to do. UAlert has close to 20,000 followers. Melissa Vito has served as the chair of CERT What happens next? 2008 : Louisiana Technical College No one should have to answer this question, but in recent years, it has become for more than five years. She emphasized the importance of community awareness in the event apparent that precautionary measures need to be taken on school campuses. 2010: University of Alabama In 1999, at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., two armed students took of an active shooter’s being on campus and the usefulness of UAlert in keeping the the lives of 13 people and then their community informed. 2011: San Jose State University — California own. This massacre was one of the first “The [system] is linked to emails that school shootings that resulted in the go out as soon as we hear of something, loss of life on such a drastic scale, but, 2012: Chardon High School — Ohio to let people know to stay away from unfortunately, it wasn’t the last. a particular area of campus, and we In the next decade, a student killed 2012: Oikos University — California will always send out a message when 32 people before committing suicide at something is clear,” Vito said. “If there Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State 2012: Sandy Hook Elementary School — are other messages, we will use that University in 2007, a 43-year-old man Connecticut text system. It’s a system that parents killed seven people at Oikos University can sign up for so that news can reach in April 2012, and, most recently, the beyond just our community.” Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy — Robert Sommerfeld, UAPD commander Steve Holland is the assistant vice president for Risk Management resulted in the death of 26 people total, Services, a department that deals with insurance coverage if employees 20 of them children, in Newtown, Conn., are hurt on the job or if there is property loss. While the department is not last December. The UA experienced this kind of horror firsthand when a shooting occurred at the involved in the immediate response, it deals with cleaning up the scene to restore College of Nursing in 2002, a tragedy that resulted in the death of three instructors the building to functionality. “We need multiple channels of information going out, and UAlert is one of and the shooter’s suicide. No two incidents are the same, but sadness, horror and pain are common links between them all; these are tragedies that no university, those,” Holland said. “The way those alerts are worded is critical. The challenge is to get the message out and make sure that they act on the information in a institution or person should have to endure. responsible way.” So, how would the story end? The CERT website will also feature information about an incident if the board The answer depends heavily on the protocol of the University of Arizona Police Department and the Campus Emergency Response Team. Both departments work feels that it could potentially concern, affect or harm students. There is also a policy together to ensure the safety of all students, employees, faculty and staff within the committee in CERT that would decide if classes needed to be canceled, depending on the circumstances. community. “All situations like this are dynamic. There is not a set script for them,” Sommerfeld A student’s first plan of action should be to alert UAPD or campus authorities of any suspicious behavior or imminent danger — in this case, gunshots. Alexandria said. “We inform people of it quickly so that they are aware of it and can take proper Yetter, a biomedical engineering freshman, reflected on what she would do if she protective actions, which could be anything from sheltering in place to fleeing the area.” witnessed a student with a gun on campus. Depending on the scale of the incident, UA facilities could be utilized for various “I actually work in the union, and … I might feel uncomfortable and really wary of him. I would definitely report it,” she said. “This is an open campus, so anything purposes, according to the Campus Emergency Response Plan. Buildings like McKale Center, the Student Recreation Center and residence halls could potentially can happen, but it’s about knowing your resources.” Robert Sommerfeld, a UAPD commander with more than 27 years of experience, be used as shelters. If circumstances required additional medical relief, Arizona Health Sciences Center and the Department of Veterinary Science and Microbiology, described the department’s rigorous preparation for threats to campus safety. “For law enforcement, our top priority is to stop the threat, which would be the as well as Campus Health Service, would provide assistance and supplies. Once students and their families have been made aware of the incident, individual or the individuals with the firearm. We are going to rapidly deploy to that threat to stop [it]. That is our primary goal,” Sommerfeld said. “Next is the care community members are in a safe location and stabilized, and the shooter has of individuals who may be injured and investigation of the incident to determine been apprehended, the campus community would begin the process of restoring why this happened. [We] hold them accountable for their actions.”
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For law enforcement, our top priority is to stop the threat, which would be the individual or the individuals with the firearm.”
SAFETY, 2