College Drills Prepare Staff For Real Threats

COURT HOUSE — When a student sent a text message March 7 in mid-afternoon that threatened that a bomb would destroy Atlantic Cape Community College’s Cape May County campus, a well-drilled plan went into action.
Middle Township Police were alerted, the building was evacuated, evening classes were canceled and the sender was arrested.
While college President Dr. Peter Mora termed the event “very critical,” the administration and staff knew exactly what to do because “we have been working hard on this type of incident for over five years,” Mora said in a March 8 telephone interview.
He said the college has developed several systems, college-wide, that keeps close track of social media that includes its Facebook and Twitter pages.
All campuses are included, Mora added. That means the main facility in Mays Landing, the one in Atlantic City and the local campus here.
Campus safety is one of five areas that is the focus of special attention, Mora said.
“We utilize a central approach. The chief security officer is responsible for safety and security on all campuses.”
Mora said many community colleges do not have a sworn security staff. Atlantic Cape has such a unit that is “well trained.”
However, when there is a public safety matter, such as the bomb threat, they immediately summon local police departments.
Over the past five or six years, Mora noted the college had developed working relationships with Middle Township, Hamilton Township and Atlantic City police departments.
Mora said emergency drills are practiced so that, should an event take place, local police know the interior floor plan of the buildings as well as any exits or entrances to the facility, indoors or out.
“They are familiar with the campuses,” said Mora.
Technology is fully utilized, Mora said. That means college staff actively monitor social media, so that, should a problem surface there, immediate action can, and will, be taken to correct the problem.
Mora said over time, the emergency drills have paid dividends at each campus, this being the third such event since November 2011.
One evening, a shooting was reported in the vicinity of the Atlantic City Campus. A call was received from city police “that told us we needed to go into lockdown,” said Mora. That meant no one could enter or leave the facility. After about an hour and a half, a suspect was apprehended. The college was again notified that it would be able to allow students to leave.
Because that campus is one building, it was far easier to secure than the Mays Landing site, he said.
However, in February at the Mays Landing Campus, college officials were alerted that a prisoner had escaped the Atlantic County jail, and might be in the wooded area of the college.
The college tract includes 500 acres there, said Mora, although the campus uses about 80 of those acres.
As law enforcement officers were tracking that suspect, the college was locked down.
Still, said Mora, the college’s communications system worked well to alert students, in transit for evening classes, that they had been canceled, due to the lockdown.
The suspect was ultimately found.
Mora acknowledged that the March 7 event was the “first where we had a bomb threat. It is not common with us,” he said.
Mora said the technology that helps alert the student body is done in partnership with a FM radio station that uses a subcarrier tool.
Using wall-mounted screens, each classroom can be individually alerted to a situation. Mora said that a dean from a Midwest college told him about the device, which is common in that region.
A noise, different from a fire drill, will alert students and staff, and the monitors are activated.
“We practice twice a year,” said Mora.
He said that local police departments are invited to the campus for those drills. Those departments are also “encouraged to use our property” for SWAT training in order to be familiar with the building layouts.
“We did our due diligence,” Mora said.
Also planned with Middle Township Police Department is a meeting to discuss what went right or what may need improvement.
“I would give all credit for the safety to them and for the early alert to get them on site as soon as possible,” Mora concluded.