You’re sitting in class on a typical Thursday morning when you hear what seem to be gunshots. What runs through your mind in that moment? Fear? Panic? Would you know what to do in the face of a school shooting?
The members of security here at Bucks want all students and faculty to know how to react in the case of this very real and very dangerous situation.
For about a year now, Bucks has had a video available to the students and faculty at the community college up on the Buck’s Portal. It’s called Shots Fired on Campus. The video, provided by the Center for Personal Protection and Safety (CPPS), is mainly geared to young people of college age to educate them on active shooter situations.
Dennis McCauley, director of safety and security here at Bucks highly recommends watching the 20-minute video. With 27 years’ experience as a police officer himself, McCauley notes the law enforcement background that went into making the video. That being said, it’s a great way to quickly get informed by people whose job it is to keep the community safe.
The CPPS primarily specializes in making training videos based on different emergency situations. Used by various agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Defense, CPPS is the leading provider for emergency situation training videos.
Here’s how to find the video. Just log on to MyBucks, hit the Student Support and Services drop down, then click on Security and Parking. The video is the first thing you see on that page. It’s that simple.
The video doesn’t train you in self-defense. You won’t develop ninja moves directly after watching. However, it does give you extremely useful and important directions to follow in the event of such an emergency. Knowing the information provided from the video could mean saving your life.
It details certain ways to react dependent on your situation. For instance, if the shooter is in your building, you will react differently than if you have a good amount of space between yourself and the shooter, enough space to find safety.
“In a time of crisis, people respond how they’re trained,” says McCauley. That’s why it’s so important that this video reaches as many students and faculty as possible. Because while a shooting may not necessarily be likely, the chances of it happening aren’t impossible.
Since Bucks is a larger school with most of the student population having clashing schedules, it’s hard and pretty impractical to have practice drills for these situations.
Luckily there is a way to stay informed in the case of an emergency. If you aren’t already, you can sign up for the e2campus alert system. Just text ‘Bucks’ to 79516.
The alert system notifies students and faculty about school closings and delayed openings, but it is also very useful in the case of an emergency such as an active shooter on campus. If you don’t already have e2campus, it’s highly recommended you get it to stay up on what’s happening around Bucks.
If you’re more interested in various protocols for how you can react in different emergency situations on campus, more information is available online in the Student Support and Services in the Bucks Portal. Stay safe.