On Feb. 27, 17-year-old TJ Lane fired ten rounds of ammunition in the cafeteria of Chardon High School in Ohio. Six were injured, five hospitalized and three died within the first two days after the incident.

Lane was not a student at Chardon; on the day of the shooting, he was supposed to catch a bus to an at-risk high school approximately 30 miles from Cleveland.

After fleeing the campus, Lane was arrested.

Charged with three counts of aggravated murder, Lane admitted that his victims were chosen at random. It has yet to be determined if Lane will be tried as an adult.

In response to shootings similar to this one, high schools and universities have revised their own emergency plans.

After the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007, UNCW released a safety Q&A, in which the campus police answered questions regarding safety and emergency plans.

“There are three primary components of an effective response and preparation for tragedies, community training and response, law enforcement preparedness and intervention, and institutional support,” said David Donaldson, chief of UNCW police. “UNCW has put a great deal of effort into each of these items.”

According to Lt. James Watkins, patrol division of UNCW campus police, “Updated policies and procedures will quickly be initiated during any type of campus emergency. Being a coastal university, we have unfortunately had to deal with a number of hurricanes over the years. These are not pleasant events but nonetheless we have garnered a wealth of knowledge from dealing with them.”

The campus police have numerous plans for any type of emergency situation. including preparedness training, interagency response/communications, established emergency operations centers and command posts. Watkins said all of these can be implemented and utilized during a shooter type situation and that communications with the campus community have improved with emergency text messaging, blast emails, blast phone calls, class room intercoms and the Seahawk siren system.

Also available online for students, faculty and staff are a number of PDFs, including ones with tips for dealing with interpersonal violence, active shooters and sexual harassment. 

To report suspicious activity, students can always call 911. “We also have a non-emergency line, 910-962-2222, as well as over one hundred call boxes on campus. Students can also utilize our anonymous tips line which 962-TIPS,” said Watkins.

Campus police offer a comprehensive training program on how to deal with and prepare for a shooting type situation. Students interested should contact Lt. James Watkins at [email protected].

According to the safety Q&A, “UNCW is not immune from incident such as the one that occurred on the Virginia Tech campus. Nevertheless, UNCW is committed to providing the safest campus environment we can for our students, faculty and staff. To do that UNCW continually assesses the safety of our campus community and then institute new measures to enhance it.”