Upon receiving notification that a lockdown has been ordered:
- Flee the campus if you are certain that you can do so safely. If you are responsible for students or others, you should attend to your responsibilities before fleeing unless the threat to your safety is imminent.
- Lockdown if you do not flee.
- Close and lock exterior doors to the building.
- Get to a safe room if you can, or lockdown in the closest room.
- Close and lock the door, and barricade the door if possible.
- Block all windows and any other way to see into your room as best you can. If the suspect does not have the ability to find out quickly whether anyone is in a particular room, the suspect will most likely keep moving to find more easily available targets.
- Have all occupants of the room hide behind barricades such as overturned desks or tables, or along the same wall that the exterior door is in. The idea is to not be visible if the suspect looks into the room.
- Stay in the room and be quiet (not necessarily completely silent, but whisper level noises) and await further instructions.
- Keep lights on or off – do not change back and forth.
- Limit movement in the room to the least amount possible.
- In an extended lockdown it may be necessary to take rest room breaks. Try to contact Security to determine whether it is safe to move to the rest room in your building. Never go out of the room alone. Instruct someone to notify Security if you are not back within a reasonable time (for example five minutes).
- Do not let anyone into your building or room once the lockdown has commenced. The college is preparing to print some signage to go on the exterior doors to notify people that a lockdown is in progress. This should minimize confusion and notify anyone not in a building that they need to flee or hide as best they can in an outside area.
- The college will send out updates to let you know when the lockdown can be relaxed to a condition in which you can move about within the building, but still keep the exterior doors closed and windows covered. Updates may also contain fresh information with the instruction that the full lockdown is still going on.
- The All Clear announcement will go out via the WENS. Security may also enter your building to repeat the All Clear and will announce their presence as they enter. Other employees (maintenance or custodial workers for example) may be assisting Security and may also enter with keys and announce their presence.
- If you leave when the All Clear is given, notify the building captain or someone else in authority that you are leaving.
- Everyone involved with the lockdown should make some notes so that they can contribute to the after action report.
Your first option is to flee, if you are certain that it is safe to do so. Your next option is to hide and lockdown. The final option, if the suspect discovers your hiding location, may be to take the offensive and attack the suspect. If it comes to this, do not hesitate or hold anything back. When you are fighting for your life there are no rules. Do whatever you need to do, as forcefully as you can do it. Nothing less than your full force and application to this effort will help you survive.
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