Inside Clemson

July 13 Main campus Active Shooter training: Additional information

By Eric Hendricks
Chief of Police
Clemson University Police Department

On Wednesday morning, July 13, the university will conduct a test of its emergency preparedness with a drill simulating a specific threat to our campus.

Reason for the Exercise: Exercises like this allow us to evaluate our emergency protocols, staff training and technologies, and ensure that they are fully aligned to protect and inform the campus community in the event of real threats to the campus. Drills like this have become best practice in higher education and are strongly recommended by emergency preparedness experts.

Site: The site of the exercise will be Edwards Hall. During the exercise, the building will be closed and inaccessible to all but drill participants or staff that work there. We do not anticipate any interference with activities in the surrounding buildings and offices. Prominent signage and barricades around Edwards Hall will indicate that police training is occurring.

Other participants: A critical component of the university’s emergency preparedness is our collaboration with local public safety partners. This exercise will include Clemson City Police, the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office, South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force and others. Their vehicles, staff and uniformed officers will be around and near Edwards Hall throughout the exercise.

Type of drill: In this case, the training exercise will simulate the threat of an active shooter. The format of this training, which is designed to test multiple facets of our preparedness, includes interactive role-playing that may look and sound to a passerby as if a real crisis is unfolding.

What if an actual emergency occurs during the drill? In such a situation, we would immediately send a CU Safe Alert indicating “this is not a test” and initiate our actual emergency preparedness protocols and communications procedures.

Emergency communications: The university in recent years has installed a comprehensive series of redundant emergency notification technologies meant to ensure that we can communicate promptly and regularly to the campus and wider university community as different types of emergencies necessitate. During this drill, we will test our Emergency Mass Notification system (CU Safe Alert).

Your role in this drill: You have an important role to play in any emergency and, therefore, in this drill. During this exercise, you will receive email and text messages as part of our practice messaging that a test is under way. Campus sirens and public address system will be activated for this drill.

Notifications will reach you from one or more of the following sources:

  1. CU Safe text messages advising you of the situation
  2. CU Safe emails
  3. Campus sirens
  4. The public address system
  5. CU Safety web page
  6. CU Safe Twitter

The CU Safe Alert notification sequence sends text messages first, followed by email messages.

Protecting your own safety

The best way to protect yourself in an emergency is by knowing what you will do if a threat arises. The best advice from emergency management experts is to take these steps in this order – run, hide and fight should you encounter a dangerous situation. Specifically:

  1. Run: If you are able to get away from the danger, do so. If the danger is inside a building and there is no danger between you and a doorway, for example, exit the building as rapidly as you can.
  2. Hide: If running would place you in specific danger, then stay hidden from the danger, ideally behind a locked door, until it is safe to escape.
  3. Fight: If continuing to hide will endanger you, then fight.

In addition, please take a moment to review the Clemson University emergency actions regarding active shooters and Homeland Security active shooter preparedness video.