At Loyola Marymount, New Emergency Notification System Doesn't Work If It's Not Used

Dispatches From the Next Generation: From Kelly Sutton at Loyola Marymount:

Last Wednesday, 7-8 gunshots rang out across the campus of my school, Loyola Marymount University. Within a half hour, I could see half a dozen LAPD cars 200 yards outside of my window with a helicopter circling over my building. My roommates and I wondered what exactly was going on. We expected the special emergency response system recently purchased by the school to send us instructions of what to do.

LMU hosted a basketball game between two rival high schools, Westchester High and Fairfax High. A young guy, aged 15, was shot after the game directly off campus. Business on campus went on as usual.

Technically the shooting happened off campus. Technically LMU students weren't involved. But the geographic proximity to me was close enough; the helicopter proved that. Let's also remember, bullets don't only hurt fellow students.

Last year, Kevin talked about how Virginia Tech's method of sending emails was not fast enough. In response to what happened at Virginia Tech last April, LMU had purchased a fast-response system that would send out text messages and recorded voice messages to every student registered for the service. So a blast of text messages or voice mails should be the fastest way of reaching all students, right?

But this messaging system didn't work as advertised.

Last Wednesday's shooting occurred around 9:50 pm, I did not receive a phone call until 12:31 am. We didn't have the same problem as Arizona State's overflow problem, we suffered from laziness of the administration. The Virginia Tech massacre lasted all of 9 minutes. The LMU administration dropped the ball. Gunshots should mean everyone stays put and locks down or moves away from the shooting. At the very least, I would have liked the peace of mind to know whether or not the shooter was still at large. Instead I watched in fear as an LAPD helicopter circled my building.

If companies will develop technology and sell it to schools, the software should do two things: work and be used. Concern is the only response in knowing that not only are these systems themselves prone to failure, but simple user error or negligence endangers dozens of lives. It's one thing to procrastinate a reply to an email; it's another to procrastinate a shooter warning. A two and a half hour difference separated the time of the shooting and the official notification of students. My fellow Lions and I are thankful that this error was not at the expense of our lives.

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