The Cabrini University Public Safety team conducted its first active shooter drill on Cabrini’s campus during the month of October 2018. The public safety department had been preparing for such an event for months and had many training sessions throughout August and September to prepare faculty, staff, and students for a drill and essentially, a potential active shooter.
The drill included the public safety department, the Radnor Police Department and Tredyffrin Police Department going around campus make sure doors were locked, as well as various reactions of the community to see what could be improved for future situations.
At 10:20 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018 Cabrini faculty, staff and students reacted to a siren on the PA system, desktop alerts on the Cabrini computer system, email and text alerts informing them that the campus was officially conducting a lockdown drill.
The drill lasted about 12 minutes and was calm to the extent that the campus community reacted as they were supposed to. The all-clear text and email alert was sent out at approximately 10:32 a.m.
During those 12 minutes, students, faculty and staff all reacted differently, depending on where they were at the time.
Throughout campus, lights were being shut off, doors locked and various objects were being shoved in front of the locked doors. Some students slept through the drill or were off campus, while others got stuck in less opportune, but safe places, such as bathrooms in their residence halls.
Some students who were off campus at the time did not see the text or email alerts until later on in the day.
“I knew it was going to happen, but it was very unexpected.” Samantha Cavaliere, senior criminology, psychology and sociology major, said.
Cavaliere was tutoring in Cabrini’s Writing Center at the time, and thanks to the preparation she was given by public safety and the Writing Center professional staff, Rachel Edwards and Rebecca Steffy, was able to react properly as soon as she got the text that Cabrini was going into a lock down.
She quickly looked at the email she received about what to do then locked the doors and turned out the lights and hid in the closet with the rest of the office to wait for the all-clear text from E-2 Campus.
Rachel Edwards, the Writing Center Coordinator, heard the siren because her office window was open and was impressed at how Cavaliere was able to help and do most of what needed to be down to lock down the Writing Center. Edwards was also impressed at how it seemed to go overall very well.
Teresita Viveros-Ledezma was also on campus during the lockdown drill as she was in her accounting class on the third floor of Founder’s Hall, which is near the middle of campus and one of the more populated buildings during week.
“[We] went to the corner of the room and pushed something against the door,” Vivoros-Ledezma, sophomore finance major, said.
Vivoros-Ledezma reacted in her class with her fellow classmates as some phones went off due to the text alert or friends from other places on campus informing them of the various alerts.
The Radnor and Tredyffrin Police departments were not available for comment at the time this article was written.
If you are not signed up for E-2 Campus email or text alerts and would like to be, please visit the Public Safety tab on Cabrini University’s website at: cabrini.edu.
