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Yesterday's tragedy at Virginia Tech has a lot of people talking. First and foremost, the outcome was devastating. As the deadliest campus shooting in U.S. history, at least 33 are dead and more than 20 injured. The fact that Virginia Tech sits nestled in a relatively remote area outside of Roanoke makes the incident all the more shocking.
Other talk relates to the question of how this ever managed to get so far. As you likely know by now, the incident involved two shootings that took place a couple of hours apart, one in a dormitory, the another in classrooms. Because university officials thought the first incident was a domestic one, students were not put on alert -- a decision that some believe put more students in harm's way.
Hindsight is always 20/20. But I wonder how this incident could have been detected or handled differently to minimize the number of casualties. A lot of that involves proper use of technology. Physical security solutions, for example, could track the comings and goings of individuals -- even in dorms -- and detect the presence of a gun. Or campus alerting systems could notify students when a dangerous incident is taking place and provide safety instructions.
Virginia Tech did send e-mail to students, but not until 9:26 a.m., while the second shooting was taking place. Another email was sent 20 minutes later asking students to stay put because a gunman was on the loose.
Had campus and local security had access to better surveillance, the content of the notifications could have been more accurate, thorough and timely. Had a campuswide alerting system been in place, word of the incident would have spread more quickly. Plenty of audio systems, including a couple offered by Sarasota, Fla.-based MadahCom, are capable of broadcasting safety sirens, live and recorded voice messages, and visual alerts via secure networks. An emergency notification system automatically contacts people by phone, pager, fax and e-mail, and delivers incident-specific information and instruction.
No good could possibly come from this tragedy. But certainly, a shockwave has been sent through all university communities that they should take a hard look at their own emergency prevention and response and be proactive to avoid another incident like this down the road.
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