Are We Ready?

33 dead. 29 injured.

By now these numbers are burned into the American public's thoughts. Truly, the Virginia Tech massacre has changed many lives, and caused everyone from students to administrators on high school and college campuses to re-assess emergency procedures.

But more than that, it has caused debates about gun control, mental health and counseling services and student safety at universities all over the nation. So, are we ready?

Reactions on campus

For some at Southeast Missouri State University, the campus community and culture have changed in a way not seen since 9/11.

"I've been more aware of my surroundings and more concerned with how Southeast would react if something like that were to happen here," said senior English major Michele Metych. "Possibly because of the Virginia Tech massacre, it's made me more comfortable with the fact that the school will be reviewing our policies."

"I think the students are taking this much more personally," said journalism instructor Tamara Zellars Buck. "Because of the circumstances, being students, knowing it could be them. In a very real way, that threat to your safety is like being invaded. Because Virginia Tech was invaded, our campus could be invaded so easily by someone like that, despite best efforts. And that's the part that's hitting home for a lot of students."

But senior video production major James Mauer, who has an aunt teaching at Virginia Tech and two cousins attending the university, said while the shootings were a tragic event, Southeast students have nothing to worry about.

"It made me worry about my family on that day, but once I learned that they were all right I was much less disturbed by it," said Mauer. "I'm pretty comfortable with how I feel on campus here. I think it's a safe place, and I feel that this was just the sort of isolated incident where one person kind of lost it. And that can happen anywhere, whether it's a university, a high school, or at work, or anyplace like that, bad things happen and you can't let it affect your life day in and day out."

Campus Safety

Much of the emergency re-assessment around the country stems from criticism of Virginia Tech's precautionary measures after the first two shootings in a dorm room, nearly two and a half hours before 30 more were killed along with the shooter. Many wonder why students weren't notified faster, or even why campus wasn't closed down altogether.

And while this is one of the worries with the local university, comparing Southeast to VT is like comparing Cape Girardeau to St. Louis.

Total enrollment at Virginia Tech is 28,469, with 26,370 on-campus students. The 2,600 acre main campus features more than 100 buildings. Southeast has 10,477 students, 2,431 on campus. Its 400 acre campus has over 50 buildings.

However, safety at the university is a big priority, university officials say.

Southeast has a three-tiered emergency preparedness plan, developed in 1999, which is a contained in a contingency manual outlining an administrative structure and guidelines to cope with most campus emergencies. This includes an Emergency Operations Center, equipped with items like satellite telephones. For the past four years, the EOC has participated in "tabletop exercises," in which mock scenarios are used to test the process.

"We have these tabletop exercises regularly, probably once a year," said Art Wallhausen, university assistant president. "The entire executive team and all the other people who would have to respond to a tornado or an earthquake, or whatever the crisis is, will get together in the command center."

The university also has many other safety features, such as emergency alert sirens with voice capabilities, lighted corridors, student watch and escort services, emergency call boxes and closed circuit television monitored 24 hours a day.

Wallhausen said that the university has reviewed its emergency procedures in light of the VT tragedy, but "the consensus is our plan is fine the way it is."

Doug Richards, director of the Department of Public Safety, said that DPS officers are prepared and well-trained.

"Considering the circumstances of an incident the magnitude at Virginia Tech, you can never be over-trained," said Richards. "I feel comfortable and confident in my police personnel. They are senior, veteran police officers here, and I feel they would do whatever steps were necessary to get a situation under control."

DPS employs 16 full-time commissioned police officers. DPS officers meet the same certifications as other law enforcement officers in Missouri. They are also trained to act as "first responders."

"Statistically speaking, this is a quiet campus, and I feel good about that and know that we are on the right track," said Richards. "But even with a quiet campus, a relatively crime-free campus, you can't let your guard down. You still have to train. You still have to educate and be prepared for an emergency situation because in this business, at some point, you are going to deal with a critical situation where you have to know how to respond, and sometimes you only have seconds."

Local Responders

So how prepared are the local hospitals and police to deal with an emergency situation at the university?

"We have plans, as every hospital does in the state of Missouri," said Brian Gilliland, director of safety and telecommunications at Southeast Missouri Hospital. "These disaster plans are continually evolving and changing as events occur. We do drills both with the community and internally, and occasionally in conjunction with the state."

Sgt. Barry Hovis of the Cape Girardeau Police Department said that CGPD is ready for anything.

"We have an emergency operation plan in place, where if we had any type of emergency that reached the level of what we call 'very serious' everybody will come into work," said Sergeant Hovis. "All 77 officers would come in until at least everything was under control."

Hovis also said that CGPD works well with DPS.

"Some of the training that we have done in the past has been the active shooter training, which was kind of at the forefront several years ago and is back now with the Virginia Tech shooting," said Sergeant Hovis. "The training is for if you have someone actively shooting -- and that means killing or harming people -- then we have the ability to not wait for special weapons or other specialty guys."

Hovis sees Cape Girardeau as safe place for learning -- and has some advice just in case one comes across a killer.

"One thing I would tell people is if you're in someplace and someone is trying to kill you or hurt you, resist and try to stop that," said Hovis. "But I think Cape Girardeau is a good community to live in; every place is going to have its problems. Statistically we probably have more thefts than average, but as far as murders, burglaries and other more serious offenses, we don't have as many as other cities per capita."

Counseling

To go along with emergency preparedness, Southeast also has a highly trained counseling staff offering grief and support services for all persons in the campus community. Judy St. John, director of the Center for Health and Counseling, said that, because of recent events, services have been expanded.

"Obviously we provide free counseling for all students enrolled here at Southeast," said St. John. "But currently, because of the event that happened at Virginia Tech, we have extended some of our services to include not just students but faculty and staff. We particularly wanted to make these resources available to the entire campus community. We want them to know more about how to deal with the range of emotions -- fears, anxieties -- that might come with this shooting tragedy."

Although the Center for Health and Counseling has not seen an influx of students seeking help, St. John said that they have spoken to many students who are uneasy and, in some way, many have been affected by the events at VT.

"Most people think of a college campus as a safe haven," said St. John. "The reality is none of us are entirely safe from things like this happening. Mostly I think it just raises everybody's anxiety to some degree."

But St. John said FERMA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) and HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), while good privacy laws, can limit what a therapist can do to help, and possibly what a university can do to protect its students.

"These are federal laws that are there to protect educational and health records, and there are good reasons for them to exist in terms of privacy," said St. John. "But they're very vague, and then you get into the issue of how much information can the judicial officer share with parents, and how much information can a therapist share with parents if they are not threatening to harm themselves or others but their behavior is irregular? This is something that is going to now change about colleges and universities. I think there is going to be a new look at security at colleges, and included will be privacy and confidentiality."