A false active shooter situation on PCC caused a lockdown on Monday which could have been prevented if the college communicated clearly with those on campus.
For a college that emphasizes how important it is for students to feel safe, its carelessness in protecting students in dire situations brings the integrity of their word into question. The administration was naive in the way they handled the situation believing that they could contain the information from spreading.
If they say they value students’ safety, why were they careless with their decision to not inform the college’s occupants?
The college waited until a student saw the threat on social media, the police were called and the campus was put on lockdown before they decided to alert students and faculty, many of which did not receive any form of notification.
Superintendent-President Mike Munoz and the LBPD were made aware of a threat circling the internet hours before the lockdown but did not announce it was being investigated and deemed it false.
The lack of transparency through vague emails and failure to disclose the initial threat are signs of a failing relationship between the administration and LBCC population.
While they stayed silent, the threat made its way around social media. This landed on the screen of a student who then exchanged messages with his wife regarding the threat and claimed the campus to be on lockdown. The wife then called LBPD about an active shooter despite there not being one.
Due to human errors in setting up their emergency response system, not all students and staff were notified once the lockdown was placed or lifted. The ones that did receive emails were met with vague warnings to shelter in place.
Aside from human error in execution, there was poor planning in the choice of delivery for emergency warnings. A select few received text messages, but this was in no way the majority of the school’s population. Most received updates on the situation through email, a form of communication that is typically unchecked or only checked at scheduled times throughout the day.
Using email as the main delivery method of alerts and notifications was not the best way to notify the college community. Students and staff were not receiving equal amounts of notifications, with some not receiving any notification at all.
A more practical way would be a mass alert sent via text that is sure to reach all campus occupants at the same time.
The first email that went out alerting students that police had initiated a lockdown procedure had the subject line “Long Beach City College – General”, which does not give a sense of urgency to the matter. Even recent emails going out such as the promotion of the upcoming dance ensemble were made clearer and more noticeable reading the subject line “Special Announcement.”
In an attempt to shed more light on the situation, the Viking went to PCC but were initially turned away from a meeting that would be made public minutes later by the Interim Chief Innovation Officer, Tracy Carmichael.
Student reporters learned of the public meeting through an email that was released moments later, resulting in 13 minutes of information being missed that could have been shared with the public.
Once in the meeting, Carmichael actively tried to dissuade these students from reporting on the public discussion.
The Viking was blocked from performing its duty as a news source for the college because of the lack of transparency and communication from administrators. This is yet another example of unacceptable behavior on behalf of LBCC in the time of an emergency.
24 hours later the school sent out a prevention plan which mentioned renovations being made to their emergency response system, but the school still failed to address the biggest problem at hand. Administration, not making the false threat public, which led to the series of events exposing these failures.
Although they updated their prevention plan, there is no evidence of reform.
Reform needs to be seen in the amount of resources dedicated to emergency response, in the training that administration receives in crisis response and in the way the college communicates with those on campus.
The flaws exposed on Monday are absolutely unacceptable. This should have never happened in the first place and it cannot happen again.