A new survey suggests that campuses nationwide might be unprepared to deal with an active shooter.
According to a survey by Margolis Healy of 513 campus officials and senior leadership, 25.4% of respondents said they have never conducted any type of active shooter drill on campus due to budget constraints.
Active shooter drills can range from facilitated “tabletop” discussions with rules clearly defined at the start, to unannounced instances of masked men storming into classes and firing blanks from a starter pistol.
The survey respondents work at four-year public and private institutions as campus safety officers, student affairs professionals or hold senior leadership positions (presidents, provosts, deans).
Less than half of the respondents said their campus holds a post-event meeting with all emergency preparedness staff after they receive news of a tragedy.
Survey respondents (70%) also said that need more staff, compared to 40% of the campus leadership. Campus leadership also believed that their campus safety officers monitored social media more than they actually did.
When campus officials are monitoring social media, they tend to use manual methods — 67% of respondents scroll through posts by hand. Only 8% use social media threat alert software or contract with a monitoring company.
The survey also reflected growing anxiety over sexual violence on college campuses, as 57% of respondents agreed with the statement “I am concerned about Title IX violations (gender violence, sexual harassment, etc.) at my institution.”
http://www.margolishealy.com/files/resources/2015MargolisHealy_CampusSafetySurvey_1.pdf
