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Courtesy of WBKO News in Bowling Green, Kentucky

October 22, 2008

Shooting Warnings at Western
Kentucky University

By Sharon Otterman
New York Times

Thursday update: The university president, Gary Ransdell, said that five students questioned in connection with the fights had been released. The police on the campus still had no evidence to substantiate that shots had been fired, adding that the five students denied involvement and no weapons were found in their possession.

The Western Kentucky University campus in Bowling Green was on lockdown Wednesday afternoon after reports that shots were fired on campus.

But more than two hours after the alleged incident, police were unable to confirm that any shooting had occurred. University police said only that they had confirmed that a physical fight between two groups of individuals had taken place near the Pearce-Ford Tower dormitory on the main campus.

In light of the shooting rampages that have taken place in recent years at Virginia Tech and other American college campuses, any report of weapons on campus is generally taken very seriously.

“We’re going to err on the side of caution,” Deborah Wilkins, a university official, told Fox News when asked why the all-clear signal had not yet been given on the campus by mid-afternoon.

A glance at how W.K.U. communicated with the college community during the day shows how seriously the university took the often confusing reports of fighting and gunfire. In all, three different fights were reported on the campus during the afternoon, said Bob Skipper, director of media relations for the school about an hour north of Nashville, Tenn. Administrators used a rolling series of text messages, e-mail messages and loudspeaker broadcast alerts to warn students and staff:

12:30 p.m. Central time A text message goes out stating that armed men had been seen on the south campus, which is also known as Bowling Green Community College and is separated from the university’s main campus. That area is soon surrounded by police, according to Jan Diehm, the editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, the College Heights Herald.

12:44 p.m. The campus emergency management system announces to all students on both the south and main campus that there is “an immediate danger” throughout both campuses and they “should seek shelter.”

12:47 p.m Students receive an e-mail message saying that an “incident involving guns” had been reported.

12:52 p.m. University officials send another broadcast e-mail message saying that shots were reportedly fired at the Pearce-Ford Tower. The building is the largest dorm on campus, with 24 floors of student housing and a food court.

After that, periodic announcements urged students to stay inside until an all-clear signal is sounded.

Meanwhile, police continued to search the campus for suspects through the afternoon. Ms. Diehm, a senior, said in an interview at about 2:30 p.m. Central time that she could see people walking around the campus near Pearce-Ford and that she had been told that one person was being held for questioning; that report was not confirmed by police.

Ever since the Virginia Tech shootings in April 2007, colleges and universities have been grappling with how to calibrate their response to incidents like this, and how to keep people on campus informed about potential dangers without either touching off panic or unnecessarily disrupting the life of the school. As they put new systems and new technology in place to tackle the problem, each new incident is watched closely to see what works and what doesn’t, and the developments today in Bowling Green will add new data points to the discussion.

Update 4:45 p.m. Central time: Police give the all-clear signal to the campus and say they have taken four people into custody for questioning. Reports of shooting remain unconfirmed.