Preparing for the unthinkable

Los Altos Town Crier
By Mary Beth Hislop, Special to the Town Crier
April 25, 2007

Can we respond to a Virginia Tech?

In the aftermath of the violence at Virginia Tech, many local schools are reviewing their emergency procedures to ensure they are prepared to respond to such a crisis.

Foothill College Police Chief Ron Levine said his emergency response team had been revising and updating its Web site before the incident occurred. This is now a college priority, Levine said. Changes to the Web site will include instructions for students, faculty and staff for various emergency scenarios and a new emergency alert system.

The college is not equipped with a public address system, which many K-12 schools utilize, nor does it have a procedure, such as e-mails, for informing people on campus of an emergency.

"Right now, it's all word of mouth," Levine said. He said he would need to dispatch officers with megaphones to alert the campus population in the event of an emergency.

Virginia Tech's response to the initial dorm shootings has been criticized because students were not informed of the incident and officials did not lock down the entire campus immediately.

In January 2001, 19-year-old De Anza College student Al DeGuzman was arrested just days before he allegedly plotted to attack the school. Authorities were alerted by a local drugstore employee that DeGuzman dropped off photos for processing that pictured him with an arsenal of weapons, including 30 pipe bombs, 20 molotov cocktails, four rifles, a sawed-off shotgun and ammunition.

"It's a very scary and real possibility, and we certainly are prepared to respond to it," said Kurt Hueg, director of marketing and communications at Foothill College.

Hueg said the college's emergency response team conducts drills twice each year, responding to different mock situations to activate and test the Emergency Operation Center's preparedness.

The emergency operations center at Foothill has never been activated in response to bombings or violence, Levine said.

"Have we taken firearms from individuals? The answer to that is a resounding yes," Levine said. "Have we uncovered a plot or scheme like DeGuzman's? No."

Code Red Training Associates is a San Jose-based company that collaborates with local emergency-response agencies to conduct lockdown drills at schools throughout California.

A Code Red notification triggers barricading students inside their classrooms and closes the campus. Students at Blach Intermediate School in Los Altos participated in a Code Red drill Tuesday.

Company president Carla Holtzclaw has worked with the Los Altos and Mountain View-Los Altos Union High school districts and said it is not only important to prepare, but to glean what you can from past tragedies.

"This has been a frustration for law enforcement officials across the United States," Levine said. "Preventing this type of activity is almost always impossible. Can you do things to mitigate the injuries and loss of life? Yes."

Holtzclaw said it is difficult to identify whether someone who is angry or depressed will become violent, but people need to recognize warning signs in others, as well as in themselves. She said that youth are at risk because they have not developed life-coping skills.

Levine theorized the violence in schools by youth is more prevalent than attacks on college campuses because young teens are required to attend school no matter what their mental state is. Levine said that colleges and universities are elective institutions.