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Monday, October 13, 2008 10:12 PM CDT
LLC planning long-term effort to curb campus violence
By HERB MEEKER, Staff Writer
hmeeker@jg-tc.com
MATTOON — Lake Land College Board of Trustees Monday learned of plans for emergency preparedness communications and behavioral intervention.
One element of the emergency plan, which is part of a long-term effort in response to deadly campus emergencies at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University over the past 16 months, would monitor and intervene with individuals exhibiting potentially threatening behavior. Another part of the plan is already active with the capacity for informing students and staff of class cancellations or on-campus emergencies through text messaging, in-class intercom communications or on-line alerts.
“We will use feedback from the faculty and students,” said Mary Beals of the Social Science Department during a presentation by emergency plan organizers during Monday’s Lake Land trustees meeting. “We want to monitor their behavior and identify red-flag problems. We also want to connect with distressed individuals with different resources.”
Lake Land College President Scott Lensink said the behavioral monitoring will concentrate on serious cases.
“The question is what do you do with a student who scares people around them,” said Lensink said.
Board Trustee Tom Niebrugge said it was essential for all in the college system understand the importance of reporting threatening behavior. “If one person is not taking it seriously it could mess up the whole system,” he said.
Emily Hartke, Lake Land College Director of Counseling, agreed everyone “needs to be aware of what they can do” on the behavioral monitoring.
Trustee Mike Sullivan said the students could “serve as the eyes and ears” for some of these behavioral problems with proper education.
Lake Land College Public Safety Chief Randy Ervin said the safety alerts or text messages will only be sent after verification. There will not be a circulation of rumors that could cause a panic, he said, in reference to a recent incident at Mattoon High School when a rumor on a threat of violence raced through the student population via text messages or cell phone calls.
“When we roll this out the students need to pay attention on where the message comes from. We will send out verified messages. That is very different from what they might get from their buddy in history class,” Ervin said.
He said the importance of text messaging and other electronic devices is vital for getting the word out on a threat of violence or an approaching tornado or to stay home on a stormy night when a class is canceled.
“The reality is we have to be cognizant of the way people communicate in 2008. This is still an effective way to get a message out,” said Ervin.
The college has released some details of the plan through an on-campus computer network. The planners hope to get feedback from different sections of the college community.
The outlines for the emergency preparedness and intervention plans showed outlines about 30 pages each.
Ervin said some college campuses have developed very detailed plans covers hundreds of pages. But the question is whether most employees will ever read those plans, he said, much less implement them effectively when lives are on the line.
“We want one that covers a lot, but one not so exhaustive it is not effective,” he said.
Contact Herb Meeker at hmeeker@jg-tc.com or 238-6869.
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