After Monday's mass shooting at Michigan State University, San Jose State faculty members reflect on their feelings and emotions regarding if a shooting were to happen on campus.
Justice studies assistant professor Shawna Bolton said she hopes to see an improvement in active shooter training. She said she wants staff and students to both be aware of what to do, who to call and what exits to take in an active shooter situation.
“If push comes to shove the only plan that I have is to tie a whole bunch of lab coats together and try to get my students out of the window somehow, so that they can get to safety as quick as possible,” Bolton said.
On Monday, 43-year-old Anthony Dwayne McRae opened fire on Michigan State's campus, killing three students and injuring five.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, a mass shooting is defined as an incident in which four or more people are shot.
Since 1966, there have been nine shootings on college campuses in which four or more people were killed, according to The Violence Project, a nonprofit organization that conducts research on mass shootings in the U.S.
While a college mass shooting has not taken place in the Bay Area, in 2001 then De Anza College student, Al DeGuzman, planned to bomb the campus but was ultimately caught before the event could take place.
In 2018, graffiti was found in the women’s bathroom of Dudley Moorhead Hall in which a shooting on San Jose State’s campus was threatened, however it was deemed noncredible.
Bolton said she feels mostly safe on campus, but it being open to the public does cause concern.
“Anyone is free to roam the campus and of course we don’t want to close that to the public,” Bolton said. “It is kind of worrisome, especially when we have a lot of people with mental health issues close by.”
Joanne Wright, senior associate vice president for university personnel, said there is no mandatory violence prevention training program.
“Resources regarding workplace safety, behavior issues and workplace violence are available to employees,” Wright said. “Evaluation of training programs and what is needed is continuously evaluated so there may be changes.”
The Behavioral Intervention Team is a program on campus that is aimed at those who serve as a threat to themselves or another person.
University Police Department (UPD) Capt. Frank Belcastro said the UPD offers training in video programs such as “RUN, HIDE, FIGHT,” a six-minute-long video covering the three things a person in an active shooter situation should do.
“We have conducted multiple trainings and it is usually by request,” Belcastro said.
An active shooter situation is often over within 10 to 15 minutes, before law enforcement arrives on the scene, according to the UPD website.
Belcastro also said UPD Officers are prepared and trained with exercises in the event of an active shooter on campus.
“UPD participates each year in a full scale active shooter exercise that includes multiple police departments, multiple fire departments, EMS and educators,” Belcastro said. “It includes a medical portion which has the officers treating simulated gunshot wounds.”
Computer science sophomore Anne Mai said she would not know what to do in the case of an active shooter on campus and that the university should designate a day towards campus safety.
“I don’t feel like we do a drill in San Jose State often about this kind of thing even though it probably should happen,” Mai said. “I think a lot of students might feel more reassured that they have to do it and just knowing the process of what they’re supposed to do during that time.”
