On Saturday morning, a man, later identified as Noah Harpham, 33, shot and killed three people before opening fire at police officers at the 200 block of Prospect Street just east of downtown. Police shot back at Narpham and killed him.
Due to the proximity of the shooting, some students expressed concern that the CC campus was not notified earlier, for the notification email was not sent to students until 8:07 p.m. that night.
“By the time the first call came over [regarding the shooting] and we could sort out some of the details, the whole thing was over,” Associate Director of Campus Safety Maggie Santos said. “We decided that, because the police killed the shooter, it was not an immediate and eminent threat to campus.”
During and after the shooting, CC’s Campus Resource Officer Jason Newton monitored the progress through the CSPD radio. Newton, Santos, and Assistant Director of Campus Safety Nick Calkins explained they had little time to decide whether to notify CC students, faculty, and staff due to the rapid progression of events.
Had the shooting posed an immediate threat to campus, Campus Safety would have sent out text, phone call, and email alerts using the RAVE system. Campus Safety tries to use the system only when absolutely necessary since they do not want students, faculty, and staff to grow desensitized to the alerts.
“It would’ve been nice to communicate the events faster, but after debriefing as a team, I think we had the best response possible in that situation,” said Calkins.
Although the shooting and the shooter were not on campus nor affiliated in any way to the college, the event as well as a shooting a block away from campus and shootings on other campuses have amplified Campus Safety’s initiatives for active shooter preparation on campus.
Since Newton became CC’s CRO, Campus Safety has offered active shooter training for the CC community. The program was designed by Newtown in conjunction with University of Wisconsin Madison’s Police Department and teaches participants how to protect themselves during an active shooter situation, how to get out of it, and other related strategies. The bulk of the training, Newton explained, focus on mental health.
“When we look at shooters, we’ve seen a pattern indicating that all the shooters were in some type of crisis. We’re not saying that everyone in crisis will become an active shooter, but most active shooters are in crisis,” said Newton, who will host another training first week of Block 4. “On the other side of mental health, you as the victim might have to fight for your life. You need the mental practice to fight.”
As an organization, Campus Safety constantly reevaluates how they assess the impact of such events on students after the fact.
“One major situation could be of much lower impact at one institution than another,” said Calkins. “There’s no specific protocol for us to follow, so we have to figure out how to distribute information based on the situation but more importantly, give the CC community the resources they need to recover from an event.”
A study conducted by the Virginia Youth Violence Project in 2007 found that college campuses are the safest place for 18-24 year olds despite the media’s portrayal of college campus shootings. Furthermore, it found that the leading causes of death in this demographic are car accidents and suicides. Based on this information, Newton has established goals to prevent the latter, particularly through the mental health focus of the active shooter training and extension of resources.
This year, Campus Safety has also conducted ‘crime prevention through environmental design,’ or CPTED, evaluations around campuses. This involves officers evaluating buildings, office spaces, classrooms, and other areas in CC buildings to gauge how adequately they keep the occupants safe. Afterwards, the officers provide a report detailing the suggested improvements.
“CC has a great basis and network to admit that situations like this will have an effect and needs to be dealt with,” said Calkins. “Between the active shooter trainings, the CPTEDs, and the other resources we offer, we can look back after every situation at CC and other institutions to see how we could have handled it better. We are never resting at ‘It’s good enough.’”