Michigan State shooting: How Louisville-area universities have prepared for emergencies

This month's deadly shooting at Michigan State University, in addition to recent mass casualty incidents at public places around the country, served as a chilling reminder to students, parents, faculty, staff and administrators at schools in the Louisville area of the need to prepare for active shooter scenarios.

The Feb. 13 shooting on the MSU campus in East Lansing, Michigan, left three students dead and five wounded, with the 43-year-old gunman dying of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The Courier Journal reached out to several universities in Louisville, Southern Indiana and Kentucky for more information on their active shooter and emergency response plans. Here's what officials shared:

University of Louisville

U of L has a step-by-step procedure for responses to active shooter scenarios, and it is available at louisville.edu/policies/policies-and-procedures/pageholder/pro-active-shooter.

The procedure covers everything from an emergency operator sending out a campuswide notification, to the steps campus community members should take, to the law enforcement response and then the "post-incident action."

The university also provides online information on the "Run. Hide. Fight." response to active shootings, which is what many schools around the country, including Michigan State, also use.

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Simmons College of Kentucky

A spokeswoman for Louisville's HBCU, with its campus south of downtown in the Limerick and Old Louisville area, said Simmons College of Kentucky practices and uses the "Run. Hide. Fight" principles in active shooter situations.

Bellarmine University

Bellarmine University spokesman Jason Cissell said "we can't provide a lot of specifics about our own plans to respond to these scenarios," but he said the Catholic institution located off Newburg Road has a Comprehensive Emergency Operations Plan that deals with a variety of situations, including active shooter incidents.

"We work to educate our campus community on what to do if something like this were to happen," Cissell said. "Our Office of Public Safety provides training presentations around these scenarios."

The university provides information to its community via bellarmine.edu/security/active-aggressor-information.

"If an active aggressor is on campus, there may not always be a pattern or method to their assault. These situations demand immediate action by all involved to protect themselves while waiting for law enforcement to neutralize the threat," the university website's page on "Active Aggressor Information" says. "If law enforcement is not yet on campus, call 911 immediately, and then call Bellarmine Public Safety at 502.272.7777."

Bellarmine's "Active Aggressor Information" page also includes a link to the FBI's "Run. Hide. Fight" video that covers recommended steps to take in an active shooter situation.

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Indiana University Southeast

Indiana University Southeast, based in New Albany, joins the six other Indiana University system campuses in following certain safety and response procedures.

IUS and the other IU campuses remind students, staff and visitors of the "Run. Hide. Fight" protocol.

Benjamin Hunter, the associate vice president and superintendent of Indiana University Public Safety, said police chiefs, administrators and other officials from the different campuses have held discussions this year on "tabletop plans" related to active shooters and other emergency situations.

"The lessons we've learned on any of our campuses can then cascade out (to the others)," Hunter said. "We can't do it alone, so we work with our partners, like the New Albany Police Department, and have a memorandum of understanding in place with Indiana State Police."

More resources on safety and active shooter responses are available online at Emergency Situations: Emergency Management & Continuity: Protect IU: Indiana University and Active Shooter-Aggressor: Emergency Situations: Emergency Management & Continuity: Protect IU: Indiana University.

Spalding University

Spalding University, with its campus south of downtown Louisville near Simmons College of Kentucky, has resources online regarding emergency preparedness and response at spalding.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/May-2022-Update-Emergency-Preparedness-and-Response.pdf.

Additionally, a handbook on different emergency situations for students, faculty, staff and visitors is available for "quick reference" at www2.spalding.edu/emergency. Active shooter scenarios are covered in the handbook.

University of Kentucky

University of Kentucky officials said while they don't publicly release security plans, all UK police and communications officers are trained to respond to active aggressors. The university's security personnel train with the Lexington police and fire departments as well.

Whitney Siddiqi, UK's director of issues management and crisis communications, said the university's officers arrive at an emergency scene, on average, in about two minutes.

Part of the response to active shooters or other emergencies, according to Siddiqi, includes:

• Using UK Alert, the university’s emergency notification system, to "immediately notify the community of the situation and any actions required, such as avoiding an area or sheltering in place. This also notifies parents and family members who are signed up to receive alerts."

• The UK Alert system also includes around 9,000 desk phones and over 50 Blue Emergency Towers, which provide emergency push buttons and outdoor notifications.

UK Police also hosts active aggressor trainings at least once per semester and as requested by colleges or departments. The training, Siddiqi said, is built on the "avoid, deny, defend (ADD)" or "run, hide, fight" strategy.

Other resources are available at police.uky.edu/safety.

Reach Billy Kobin at bkobin@courierjournal.com

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Michigan State shooting: How Louisville schools prep for emergencies