J271 Final Project

J271 [9:30am] – Emma Rose Davis’ Final Project (577 Words)

Many students on the Ole Miss Campus have concerns following the Parkland school shooting this past February.

Sophomore Madison Woodruff was in a school shooting during her senior year of high school.

She said that the procedures taken by the town and school were not under protocol.

Woodruff remembers very well being extremely scared. She said the whole time she was sitting in the classroom her friends were crying and holding her hand and every so often they would say a prayer the guy wouldn't try to come in their classroom.

“I would definitely be unprepared if I ever went through that again,” Woodruff said.

Woodruff is an Honors College student who did not have to take the Active Shooter class offered on campus.

“My high school handled it all wrong and a bunch of the classroom doors didn't even lock,” Woodruff said.

Woodruff went on to say that she thinks it is horrible that the university is not doing more to enhance the knowledge and preparedness of students.

University Police Departments Officer Jeff Kellum did not say that the University is doing anything different at this time to increase campus safety as far as school shootings go.

Kellum said that all emergency response personnel are trained to operate under the same National Incident Management System goals and objectives.

“UPD coordinates programs for departments whose students do not take EDHE, but an Active Shooter Response video is also available on the Ole Miss web page,” Kellum said.

Local school Oxford High School has taken more measures to create a safe place for their students. They are striving to not only create a safer school but a safer community.

The high school has updated its security resource information system and informed the community on procedure among other things

Oxford Police Departments Major Jeff McCutchen said that the university and city police department do tabletop exercises throughout the year to better plan their responses and areas of need.

“We must all work together as a community to address this growing issue. Communication and planning with involvement of each school, law enforcement agency and parents to better understand and plan for that potential threat.” Major McCutchen said.

“Knowledge is power. It is extremely unfortunate that we have to talk about this but it is a reality in today’s society.” Major McCutchen said.

According to CNN, there has been an average of 1 school shooting per week in the year of 2018, most of which were not widely advertised in the media.

CNN follows a few protocols as to what qualifies an active shooter situation. A shooting that involved at least one person being shot, not including the shooter. A shooting that occurred on school grounds, including kindergarten through college.

Two of those shootings were in Mississippi, neither were life threatening shots.

“More than 210,000 students have experienced gun violence since Columbine,” The Washington Post said.

According to the University Police Department, Ole Miss follows the protocol that is the same as FEMA’s Independent Study Course IS 907 Active Shooter: What You Can Do.

Under the FEMA Course, an active shooter is described as an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined and other populated areas.

 For students who did not take the course, it is recommended by the University Police Department to either look at the FEMA website or take the class offered by the university.