Simon Fraser University is rolling out a training program available to students to help them mentally prepare for the worst, should it arise.
SFU’s Campus Safety & Security Services is getting assistance from the Burnaby RCMP to prepare a comprehensive training guide for students and staff to handle any potential threats that may arise on campus, which includes but is not limited to potential school shooters.
As Steven MacLean, senior director of Campus Safety & Security Services, stresses, it’s more about building a “stop, drop, and roll” equivalent for active threats the same way that fire safety procedures areis ingrained into elementary students. MacLean said in an interview with The Peak that the program’s creation wasn’t necessarily due to a catalytic event that had happened, but more so to prepare students and staff of what to do in case of an emergency.
“We recognized some time ago, based on interactions with our community, a need to close a gap in awareness as it relates to active threats,” said MacLean. “This was not based on any particular threat, in fact there’s no threat to the university at all, but recent events have indicated that there is a requirement for some awareness on how people should respond to an active threat.”
“[This is] not necessarily and singularly [designed for] an active shooter, but an active threat where there’s some sort of violence created by one or more people towards a group of other individuals, untargeted in most cases,” MacLean continued.
There is already a website up and running, which has an informative video detailing what steps SFU in collaboration with the RCMP recommends in the case of an active threat. The plan for campus security is to start rolling out workshops that anyone can attend, which, after having some test runs, may start as soon as next month.
MacLean stresses that this isn’t to promote fear among students, or to prepare because the school legitimately fears a potential attack; rather that it is important to ensure that those associated with SFU have been trained properly in the case of any emergency. He wants to ensure that the steps outlined in the program illuminate what should be done should anyone on campus find themselves facing an active threat.
“Just basically reinforce the run, hide, take action steps that we want people to be able to take in the unlikely event that there is an active threat,” said MacLean. “I don’t think that this is going to create a culture of fear, it’s simply to create awareness.”
