WSU Tri-Cities, Columbia Basin College have alert systems for campus shootings

Colleges and universities in Washington didn’t require the wake-up call from Umpqua Community College. They’ve tightened their preparations for campus attacks since the June 2014 fatal shooting at Seattle Pacific University.

All of Washington’s public four-year schools, including Washington State University Tri-Cities in Richland, have emergency alert systems that send text and email messages to students and staff, as well as parents who opt into the system. The alerts warn of police action near campus, as well as on-campus hazards.

Columbia Basin College in Pasco has a similar alert system available to students and staff.

Most schools also have other kinds of alert systems, including loudspeakers, some of which were installed or updated during the past few years.

Students and staff at Washington State University in Pullman are trained for all kinds of emergencies, including active shooters. WSU uses students to supplement professional campus security, including an internship program with campus police. State law prohibits students from carrying, possessing or using any firearm on campus.

The university used federal dol lars to spread the training to more people across campus, according to Michael Gaffney, emergency management coordinator at WSU in Pullman.

More than 20 years ago, WSU had two bomb scares, including a device that exploded in a dorm room. In the past four years, three gun incidents have led to campus-wide alerts, none of which turned deadly.

CBC’s Pasco and Richland campuses were evacuated in July 2013, with the help of emergency texts and messages sent to students, after bomb threats were called in to the college. A Finley man was sentenced in 2014 to more than a year in prison for calling in the threats so he could avoid taking a test. CBC also had a shooting scare in 2008.

The college and WSU Tri-Cities have reported very little crime in recent years. WSU Tri-Cities has had two arrests on campus — one for alcohol and one for domestic violence — since 2010, according to data provided by the university to the federal government. CBC reported a motor vehicle theft in 2012, a sex offense in 2013 and a few drug arrests and disciplinary referrals in 2014.

At Washington’s 34 community and technical colleges, security measures vary from campus to campus, said Laura McDowell, spokeswoman for the Washington State Board for Community & Technical Colleges. Each has its own security plans, she said, and some do regional tabletop exercises or mock drills with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“We continually survey our campus for areas where security can be improved,” said Seattle Central College spokesman David Sandler. That’s led to the installation of emergency call boxes as well as increased patrols by uniformed campus security officers, he said.

Washington’s community colleges are not authorized to have commissioned police forces the way four-year institutions can, but they are allowed to hire campus security officers. All community and technical schools ban guns, though some have exceptions for law enforcement performing official duties, or for students and staff with concealed weapons permits who want to keep their guns locked in a car on campus, McDowell said.

The issue of campus safety was brought up during a recent meeting between Mid-Columbia legislators and CBC’s board, said CBC President Rich Cummins. There were questions about whether it would be beneficial to have the legislature revisit the prohibition of armed police on campus.

“I’m in favor of that proposal,” Cummins told the Herald. “Anything that allows for local flexibility and discussion, the better.”

After a shooting last year at Seattle Pacific University, police said preparation at the small private Christian school made a difference.

An SPU student tackled and pepper-sprayed a man who was reloading a shotgun after shooting several students. Other students helped disarm and hold the shooter down until police could arrive.

At the time, Assistant Seattle Police Chief Paul McDonagh said he believed more people would have been killed if the university had not been so well prepared.

The alert system at the University of Washington has mostly told students and staff about gas leaks and hazardous materials, but several times last year, students were warned to stay away from crime situations concerning armed men.

Several hundred people around campus are trained at least once a year in all kinds of emergency drills from bombs to earthquakes, according to UW spokesman Norm Arkans.

CBC last did training exercises with law enforcement in 2013 and Cummins said more is due in the next year. A video the college has shown in previous years that aims to inform people about how to react to an active shooter on campus will be shown at the planetarium on the Pasco campus in coming months.

McDowell acknowledged that even the best planning may not prevent a mass shooting, but merely limit the damage. Cummins said the latest attacks illustrate how important vigilance alone is in perhaps preventing future tragedies.

“The (shootings) that we are seeing are very well-crafted plans of attack and ones that have been foiled are because someone saw something and said something,” he said. “We have to look out and be aware.”

This story was originally published October 10, 2015 at 10:05 PM with the headline "WSU Tri-Cities, Columbia Basin College have alert systems for campus shootings."