Safety and Security, Hanover Police coordinate for emergency protocols

FROM PREPAREDNESS community member “on request.”

Swartz said that the current optional trainings are based on the “avoid, deny, defend” model — an active threat response strategy developed at Texas State University in 2002 — and Safety and Security will cater training based on the specific workspace.

“In a lot of situations like a library, people are out in the open,” Swartz said. “For them to go to a place and hide is more of a challenge, so we have to think of each individual classroom or space as a refuge spot. [It] comes down to using the space you are already in to close the door and barricade. The first option, of course, is to run, and know where the nearest exits are.”

Montás added that at Dartmouth, all buildings have different doors and hardware, including classrooms with and without accessible locks. This infrastructure makes it “almost impossible” for professors and classroom occupants to be trained about how to lock a classroom in an emergency, he said.

Swartz said that the only way for a professor to safely secure a room or office is to barricade it from the inside, using tables and chairs up against the door to prevent an intruder from entering.

“Even if you lock a door with the flip of a switch, the intruder could be an employee with a key,” Swartz said. “We don’t always assume that the person does not have a key,”

Montás said that Safety and Security does not consider a campuswide lockdown drill to be an effective measure.