On Sept. 19 and 20, Campus Safety hosted an active shooter/violent incident response training for all California Lutheran University students, faculty and staff. 

According to an email from Director of Campus Safety David Hilke, the training “provides preparation and a plan for individuals and organizations on how to more proactively handle the threat of an aggressive intruder or active shooter event.” 

The training was run by Hilke and Robert Sadeh, a Campus Safety supervisor. Both are trained to teach the ALICE method: alert, lockdown, inform, counter, evade. This means alert others around you, evacuate to the safest area possible, inform 911 and Campus Safety, and lockdown and counter if necessary. 

This training was presented on campus twice last year, and was well received with over 90 participants. At this years training over 160 people signed up, but only 79 students showed up. Hilke said this is not uncommon for events, as generally “half of who signed up” attend.

While the training covered what students should do in the worst case scenario, Hilke also wanted to make it clear that active shooter incidents are not very common. According to data from the FBI, there were 27 active shooter incidents in 16 states last year. California had four active shooter incidents, higher than any other state. 

Hilke and Sadeh also spoke on Cal Lutheran’s specific safety measures, as well as the ones being implemented in the near future. Currently, all residence halls are on 24-hour card access. Most classroom buildings remain open to the public, however each building has safety measures such as cameras and access to Campus Safety in case of emergencies. 

In the future, Campus Safety hopes to improve safety by adding emergency alert beacons. There would be one located in each building that would send an audible and visual alert in case of emergency. It also hopes to get access to emergency desktop takeover technology. This would mean any computer connected to the Cal Lutheran server would display an alert on its screen during an emergency. Campus Safety is currently awaiting funding to implement these measures on campus. 

Despite hoping an active shooter incident will never occur on campus, student Alex Charette chose to attend the training to be prepared. 

“In the event that something happens here, I would like to know what to do in case of an emergency,” Charette said. 

However, many students chose not to attend the training. Senior Emma Simko decided not to go because she didn’t feel it was necessary. 

“I feel like I have a pretty good idea of what to do,” Simko said. 

Even if students did not attend the training, Sadeh wanted to make it clear that in the event of an emergency, the best course of action is to take action. 

“Don’t make yourself a target. Increase your chance of survival by doing something,” Sadeh said.