Campus Safety will address a few key concerns in the upcoming weeks in response to the incident last night where a student mistook a monopod for a gun, Chief John Ojeisekhoba said.
A malfunctioning emergency notification system was one of the largest concerns. When sending both the warning notification and follow-up, the system failed to send the first two times, though it sent on the third. The school’s system is run by Everbridge, whom Ojeisekhoba called an “excellent company.”
“We can’t have that. … Whatever it will take, we need to get to the bottom of this,” the chief said, mentioning he had already spoken with information technology about the situation.
As many as 40 to 50 percent of students are not signed up for text alerts from Campus Safety, Ojeisekhoba estimated. Instructions on registering for them via my.Biola were included in an email sent to students this afternoon.
Farrin Richards, a senior environmental science major, was off campus when she was notified via the emergency alert system. Despite her safety, she was concerned for her friends on campus.
In the text that was sent out, students in Talbot East were instructed to lock themselves in their classrooms. This was hampered by a lack of locks on some classroom doors.
“It was good that they told us to stay inside … What are the safety precautions for areas that don’t lock?” Richards asked.
As of last fall, Facilities Services has already formed and begun enacting a plan to address this, Ojeisekhoba said. After surveying the doors on campus, they will next be made safer.
“It’s in motion,” Ojeisekhoba said, noting that the lockdown will likely speed the process up.
Overall, Campus Safety hopes to find new venues to educate students on how to deal with situations like this one. Though there are emergency response cards posted in every classroom, Ojeisekhoba plans to evaluate what else can be done.
Leanne Bergey, a junior transfer student majoring in psychology, described the scene in her Bardwell classroom as confused.
“We as students don’t know how to handle situations like this. We all know how to do fire drills, because we’ve done like 15,000 of them throughout the semesters,” she said. “But if something like this were to happen, none of us would really know what to do and that’s terrifying.”
As students experience their second evacuation drill later this semester, they will be reminded of the response cards in the classrooms. Looking ahead to next year, Ojeisekhoba said he hopes to communicate such information at the first all-hall of the year. He said he plans to work hand-in-hand with Student Development on informing students.
Additionally, Ojeisekhoba will ask IT to look into the lack of cell phone reception in the Talbot East area, as it made communication during the situation difficult.
Mac Bosch, a freshman Christian ministries major, was locked in his dorm room during the ordeal. His biggest concern wasn’t with Campus Safety, but with the campus response. While the mistake was initially funny, he said, students should be grateful that the student reported what he thought was a gun.
“He was just a concerned kid and he made a mistake,” Bosch said.
The situation has been and will be evaluated from communication, infrastructure and response standpoints, the chief said.
“It’s good because we can look at the issues as a university and say ‘OK, how do we go about plugging these holes?’ Because if the real deal was to happen, it would give us a chance to manage it even better,” he said.
In addition to a meeting with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department today to debrief, Campus Safety has two active shooter drills scheduled — one in-house in April, and one in collaboration with LASD in August.
For updates from Campus Safety in case of an emergency:
