Simpson College hoped to prepare students and staff with two assault training presentations on campus. Amid the recent and frightening uptick in mass shootings across the country, Simpson is working hard to make sure everyone on campus is prepared for the worst.
On Wednesday, the Emergency Response Planning Team held an event with co-chairs Matt Hansen, Vice President of Student Development and Dean of Students, and Chris Frerichs, Director of Security, leading the way. This team set up the same event for employees over the summer to see if it went well. This time, they opened it up to everyone in the community.
“What we’re hoping is that if someone has a lot of fears or concerns, they get some answers. If someone hasn’t thought about this and they’re like, ‘hey, I should be thinking about this?’ then that’s good, and we’ll leave opportunities for Q&A at the end,” Hansen said.
Simpson alumni from 2013 and Indianola school resource officer, Jay Hackett, gave the presentation to the community.
“This is a really great place to start, but it’s a really terrible place to finish. It starts a conversation on campus of how we can make campus and the city of Indianola a safer place,” Hackett said.
After the first presentation this summer, Simpson has been working on making its campus safer by upgrading many locks in various buildings. Hackett’s main piece of advice is simple, but something that many overlook.
“Like anything in life, make sure you have an emergency plan in place, whether that is for a fire or a severe storm or an active assailant situation. Make sure that we have plans in place to handle an emergency situation,” HackeI said.
Along with having an emergency plan in place, Simpson’s next step in improving campus safety is providing emergency information packets inside each room and continuously upgrading locks.
The audience of around 25 was mostly filled with Simpson employees, along with a few students and community members.
Fourth-year student and Member of the Subcommittee for Active Assailants, Elijah Keopuhiwa Carvalho, was in attendance. He’s worked with Simpson to get a program like the Emergency Response Team and SubcommiIee for Active Assailants going for the last year and a half.
“I believe this is a great first step in the direction of kind of getting this information put out to students and staff,” Keopuhiwa-Carvalho said.
Keopuhiwa-Carvalho stressed being aware of your surroundings, especially with cell phones and earbuds. However, he acknowledged that Simpson has a safe campus and he believes students shouldn’t need to stress as much on our campus.
“What Simpson is doing with this program is just trying to make sure that if something was to happen, we have the right protocols in place to keep as many students and as much faculty safe,” Keopuhiwa-Carvalho said.
