‘Emergency Preparation’ training available to students, faculty online
A new emergency preparation training course is available online for SUNY Oswego students.
OSWEGO, N.Y. — SUNY Oswego’s new emergency preparedness training aims to teach the campus community how to respond to five different situations: hold, secure, evacuate, shelter and lockdown.
The fully-online training program opened to college students and faculty on the university’s digital learning platform, Brightspace on Feb. 1.
The module consists of learning objectives and guidelines for each category with a 15 question quiz at the end. A score of 80% or above is considered a passing grade.
SUNY Oswego junior Kyle Spisak scored a 73%. He said he had not been reminded of how to react in an emergency situation since he was in high school.
“Definitely in some situations, I thought you were supposed to do something else ‘cause I hadn’t really been reminded of it since high school,” Spisak said. “So it’s a good refresher, 100%.”
Abigail Redmond is also a junior and earned a 40% on the quiz and said the training has important information to keep everyone safe.
“No one ever knows what’s going to happen in this climate. Anything can really happen and I think it would be safe if everyone knew exactly what to do,” Redmond said.
But what happens when students and staff know exactly what to do and are unable to do it?
In the case of an active shooter situation, the training instructs faculty to immediately lock the classroom door from the inside. But many on-campus classrooms don’t easily lock from the inside, or don’t lock at all.
Multiple news outlets report that the Michigan State University classroom where the gunman opened fire, killing three students and injuring five, did not lock easily from the inside.
If doors do not lock, the lockdown module recommends instructors and staff to quickly barricade doors using heavy furniture.
The lockdown module also says lockdowns are used for threats including active shooters. It says the goal of a lockdown is to build a time barrier between you and a threat. It goes on to say a locked door is a proven time barrier.
The Sandy Hook Advisory Commission’s first recommendation is to make sure classroom doors can be locked from the inside.
On Friday, Oswego Now reached out to University Police for SUNY Oswego and the college’s communication officer for comment. Neither have responded for comment at publication time.
