At a glance
Dr. David Ray and his criminal justice class acted quickly to neutralize the threat and the emergency drill was deemed a success.
Vice President for Student Affairs Dr. Gregory Sammons donned the defensive suit and simulated the threat for this exercise. He noted “it was an affirmation of our readiness to find so many doors locked and people taking the right precautions. I also want to congratulate Dr. Ray and his class for their physically assertive response. They were not passive, and I had no chance to act before they had me immobilized on the floor.”
To keep the campus community prepared, Alfred State College (ASC) holds a reality-based shelter-in-place drill in the fall to test the college’s procedures, emergency sirens, and mass notification systems on the Alfred and Wellsville Campuses.
At the announced time, members of the community simultaneously heard sirens, received text messages, and noticed all campus networked monitors taken over with instructions to shelter-in-place. Students, faculty, and staff were notified in advance to expect the emergency drill and the college offers training opportunities both before and after scheduled drills.
During the simulation, participants sheltered in locations where the door could be locked or blocked, and the room darkened while moving to locations out of sight. Phones were silenced and occupants of the room moved to the safest wall which is typically the wall parallel to the door.
Using a red defensive suit to be easily identified, a simulated threat actor attempted to make entry in more than a dozen classrooms but found them all locked, darkened, and students in safe positions for a solid eight minutes into the drill and in multiple buildings. The simulation then continued where a door was breached to find out how students and their professor would respond. Dr. David Ray and his criminal justice class acted quickly to neutralize the threat and the emergency drill was deemed a success.
Vice President for Student Affairs Dr. Gregory Sammons donned the defensive suit and simulated the threat for this exercise. He noted “it was an affirmation of our readiness to find so many doors locked and people taking the right precautions. I also want to congratulate Dr. Ray and his class for their physically assertive response. They were not passive, and I had no chance to act before they had me immobilized on the floor.”
A video of Dr. Sammons breaching a classroom door and the reactions by faculty and students is online at: tinyurl.com/ASC2022RedSuit. The drill was captured by body cams worn by University Police on the ASC campus.
Leading up to the drill, students were advised to watch an instructive video used by many emergency management and police agencies across the nation: www.AlfredState.edu/RunHideFightVideo. ASC Chief of University Police Jeff Wilcox also held an in-person training course based on the Citizen Response to Active Shooter Events (CRASE) during professional development week for faculty and staff.
With increased post-drill interest in learning shelter-in-place techniques, the University Police Department will again offer the CRASE training to all interested persons. You may request information on attending by contacting Chief Wilcox at: wilcoxjp@alfredstate.edu.
University Police conduct a drill assessment after the event to evaluate any areas of preparation that could be improved. Alfred State’s leadership including the President’s Council are also trained in FEMA’s incident command systems to be prepared for emergency and crisis management.
Alfred State offers free emergency alert emails and texts to all those with a college email address. Those registered may add additional forms of contact at www.AlfredState.edu/RAVE-signup. Members of the community may familiarize themselves with the ASC emergency siren sounds in Alfred and Wellsville at www.AlfredState.edu/ASCsiren.