Michael Paul Williams: Campus shooting alerts should be prompt

Violence on a college campus can be difficult to gauge, as we learned from the Virginia Tech massacre.

But one aspect is within a university's control: the swiftness with which it alerts students after a shooting.

During the wee hours Sunday morning, a former Hampton Uni versity student walked onto the campus and wounded a dormitory night monitor and a pizza delivery person before turning the weapon on himself. But the university waited nearly two hours before sending out a campuswide alert.

University spokeswoman Yuri Rodgers Milligan said Hampton officials sent e-mails and text messages to students at 2:50 a.m. Faculty and staff were notified 10 minutes later.

HU's police chief delayed the alert "because there was no immediate threat to students, or to the campus community . . . and the scene had been secured," Milligan said.

But could police have been absolutely sure? One of the lessons we should have learned from Virginia Tech was to assume nothing.

On April 16, 2007, Tech police initially thought they were dealing with a double homicide after two students were found dead in a dorm.

"They did not take sufficient action to deal with what might happen if the initial lead proved erroneous," stated a report by the panel that investigated the Tech massacre.

"The police reported to the university emergency policy group that the 'person of interest' probably was no longer on campus."

The panel's report also noted that senior Tech administrators failed to issue an all-campus notification until almost two hours after the initial shootings.

Two years later, events at two universities in Virginia suggest we're still quick to assume and slow to notify.

On April 4, two people were shot in Ettrick near the edge of Virginia State University's campus, about 200 feet from a dormitory. But the school did not issue an emergency alert.

"Because it was off campus, because none of our students was involved, and based on the facts we knew at the time . . . we felt there was no imminent danger or threat to our students," said university spokesman Tom Reed.

In an emergency, VSU alerts students by e-mail, cell phone voicemail, text alert, sirens and loudspeakers. "You really have to be judicious in how you use these systems" to prevent students from tuning out the warnings, according to Reed.

It appears that Hampton and VSU police drew the correct conclusions. But that does not mean the schools made the correct decision in failing to immediately alert their students of the shootings.

As Tech showed us, the moments after a crime can be chaotic and confusing. The situation may not be what it appears.

Sometimes, it's what students don't know that can be harmful. The dissemination of information -- even if an emergency no longer exists -- should be swift to avoid rumors and panic, or to avert a larger tragedy.

It is better to err on the side of caution than to be tragically wrong about the containment of a threat.

Contact Michael Paul Williams at (804) 649-6815 or .