Lockdown
From a Wired article on emergency communications:
“The kids demonstrated that in a disaster, we will use whatever tools are at hand to communicate,” says W. David Stephenson, who has been advocating for innovative and collaborative disaster tools since the World Trade Center terror attack. “It adds up to the stark reality that the first incident should have resulted in an immediate lockdown, and the second round of shooting — unless there’s something that hasn’t been reported yet — should never have happened.” [ Lessons From Virginia Tech ]
I’m trying to imagine how this campus could be “locked down.” There are limited entry points if you’re traveling by vehicle, but the campus is sprawling and very open. How would you seal this? Virginia Tech is less a college and more of a sister town to Blacksburg.
Not to mention it’d probably take significant manpower just to seal all the buildings at once. Some of the older ones are especially labyrinthine. This isn’t an elementary school or high school we’re talking about here. It’s apartment complex and office park all rolled into one, like Crystal City.
Adults live and work at Virginia Tech, and the kinds of things that always happen — robery, assaults, even murder — are going to happen here, too. I’d hate to live in a place where the police instituted marshal law when responding to any domestic violence situation. Which is what some people think the campus police should have done.
