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The Lion’s Eye
April 15, 2009
Generation
He Said, She Said - Emergency Drill Response
By Chris Dilnneo - Lions Eye Staff Writer - cad5241@psu.edu
Thursday, March 5th was the day that the school tried to have a
preparedness drill for the whole entire college campus of Penn State Bran-
dywine. It was kind of crazy at first because I was in my calculus class and
my teacher didn’t know what to do. This one kid in my class had got a text
message on his phone saying that it was about to happen in like 5 minutes.
Then after the 5 minutes was up bunch of other students in the class had
got the text message saying that the drill start. Since my teacher didn’t
know where he should keep or stop teaching class. It was really funny
though because all of the students in the class were telling the teacher what
he should do, like locking the door. There were a lot of fake gun shots go-
ing up and down the hallways of the main building. Also there were a lot |
of screaming and banging on the doors of the classroom.
Along with that she was responsible for initiating the campus’
emergency procedures at the start of the drill and Soading the PSUTXT to
everybody that had registered.
Doing this drill was very effective because it prepared a lot of the students
and the faculty, and the police. Even though most of the students thought
this was very funny and not that important, it really was interesting and a
positive thing for everybody. The reason why this preparedness drill was
done was because of the incident that happened at Virginia Tech. Now I
feel a little better knowing that this campus has taken precautions to make
this campus a better and safer place for not only the students, but all of the
people that come on and around this Penn State Brandywine campus.
Not only do I think that this drill was a good success, but so do a
lot of the faculty and staff. Ms. Yerges believes that the drill helped us as-
sess our emergency procedures and identify ways in which we can make
enhancements to our emergency plan, physical facilities, and communica-
tion/training. She is hopeful that we can plan at least one exercise a year
to test our readiness and help raise awareness about procedures to be fol-
lowed in the event of any given emergency.
By Jasmine Hunter - Lion's Eye Staff Writer - jph267@psu.edu
On Thursday, March Sth, Penn State Brandywine took part in a
campus wide preparedness drill. The drill started around 10:30 AM and
was in effect in different ways in each building. I happened to be in the
library when someone I was sitting next to got the message declaring that
the drill had started and as he turned to tell me, the lights in the library
turned off and everyone headed for the downstairs area by order of the
‘librarians’. Once everyone got there, we sat down at the computers and
they briefed us on the details of the drill. We were to stay in this area until
the drill ended. After an hour and half of nothing but loud taps at the key-
board and the occasional walkie talkie blare, we were allowed to leave.
I was told that the experience was much different in the main
building of the school where fake gunshots and troopers were prevalent
in an effort to instill caution and fear in the students of our school, includ-
ing myself. But there is a problem with this way of thinking. The idea that
surprising the students of our school by giving the day of the ‘attack’ but
not the time is quite far-fetched in itself. There is no order when it comes
to terror, People do not act rationally and you can’t expect any different
from college students, this drill did nothing but heighten the sense of a
terrorist presence among the campus.
By telling us that we need to be prepared, you run the risk of let-
ting loose a paranoia that could internally damage the relations of the
students in our campus. The truth is, there is no way to prepare for such
an event and thus you have to work indirectly toward preventing these
tragedies before they are put into effect. When it comes to an internal at-
tack, counsel the people with problems, if you see a person having a bad
day, do your best to engage in a positive interaction with them, people just
need human contact in most instances of gloominess.
As for the terrorist idea that we are still faced with the possible
threat of attack, we must do what we can when the situation arises with
the circumstances we are placed in. I am not bashing the coordinators of
this drill, far from it, I just need you all to know that you can be an active
part in preventing the threat and ensuring the safety of yourseli and your
classmates.
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