Brittny's School Shootings

Could Normandale be a victim to school shootings?Last September a student at the University of Texas fired shots from an AK-47, and then took his own life.

Could such a thing happen at Normandale? The endless possibilities are always there-but if it did how would our campus security respond?

David Daniels has been on staff with campus security for five years, and a student worker since ‘99. When asked what was the biggest scare that he has seen on campus he replied with, “I guess for me was when I was a student worker. It was mid January and there was a power outage. The fire alarms were also going off, and it smelt like something was burning and the scent was difficult to find.” Hmm. Sound to me that we don’t have much going on here.

But what if something horrible did go wrong, and someone did decide to threaten students with a weapon? How would our campus security respond and what procedures would follow?

I sat down with Campus Security Director Eric Bentley, and asked what would campus security do if Normandale was under attack. “Lockdown; basically everybody would be locked in…offices, classrooms. We’re not alarmed (security officers) and we wouldn’t be in position to stop the threat if it did occur.” he then added, “We would order everyone to take shelter until the police arrived and assemble security emergency operations team. We would also send out notifications, and messages to all students and faculty.” He also said, “Normandale is very fortunate that we don’t have any serious crimes, (as he knocked on wood).”

I have to agree. In the campus security report that was sent out to all students the biggest scare was 1-2 assaults that occurred on campus. Fortunate as we are this is still something that could spring up on us all. So I recommend to always take precautions, and be aware of your surroundings.