Immediate truth always best
Jennifer Massey
Staff Reporter
Words like “miscommunication” and “accidental discharge of a firearm” are littered among murky statements made by OCCC President Paul Sechrist about the “incident” on campus Feb. 26.
In an attempt to quiet the rampant wonderings of its information-starved population, Sechrist ordered two communication forums — one held March 4, and the other, 5 p.m. Monday, March 8.
According to the college, the forums were put together in an effort to allow students, faculty and staff members the opportunity to voice their concerns about what happened.
This sounds like another futile attempt to settle the fears of restless victims of an unnecessary event.
OCCC’s policies are in place for a reason. They are meant to be proactive, not reactive. In this situation and its aftermath, they failed to serve their intended purpose.
As the director of public policy for securityoncampus.org, Daniel Carter has helped write federal policy on safety and security for college campuses.
Carter said what happened was not normal.
“Each institution should have a process for responding to a threat quickly, not recklessly,” Carter said.
Although it was later learned that students and staff weren’t in any immediate danger from an outsider, our response made us a danger to ourselves.
The lesson here is that everyone involved, especially campus security personnel and college officials, must keep a level head. All of the proper response training in the world cannot prepare us for a gunman on campus if we are making snap judgments and not following proper security protocols.
In addition, the quick solution may not always be the right answer. A calculated response is usually the more reasonable one.
With campus officials releasing little to no information about why the alarm was sounded or why the gun was discharged, the rumor mill will continue to spin.
Conversations can be heard around campus speculating about what might have happened because almost no one believes they have been told the whole truth.
The college has issued its official statement but reports it is continuing to investigate what happened. Reports aren’t expected to be finalized until after March 5 — one week after the incident.
Without the findings of these initial reports, this may be another way the college puts the cart before the horse.
