Walden University ScholarWorks Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies Collection 2017 Awareness and Understanding of a College Active Shooter Crisis Plan Christopher Brian Williams Walden University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.edu/dissertations Part of the Higher Education Administration Commons, and the Higher Education and Teaching Commons This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies Collection at ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact ScholarWorks@waldenu. Walden University College of Education This is to certify that the doctoral study by Christopher Williams has been found to be complete and satisfactory in all respects, and that any and all revisions required by the review committee have been made.
Review Committee Dr. Sydney Parent, Committee Chairperson, Education Faculty Dr. Carole Pearce, Committee Member, Education Faculty Dr. Paul Englesberg, University Reviewer, Education Faculty Chief Academic Officer Eric Riedel, Ph.
Walden University 2017 Abstract Awareness and Understanding of a College Active Shooter Crisis Plan by Christopher Brian Williams MEd, University of Phoenix BA, University of West Georgia Doctoral Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education Walden University July 2017 Abstract Gun violence on college campuses has gained the attention of campus leaders, leading to an active shooter policy and procedure development and implementation. There was little awareness within the campus leadership of a college in the Southeast United States on the college’s active shooter policy and procedures. Guided by Coomb’s crisis management plan model, the purpose of this case study was to explore how information was provided to students, faculty, and staff regarding how to respond to an active shooter on campus. Purposeful sampling was used to identify 16 participants (6 students, 5 faculty, and 5 administrator/staff) who were interviewed in person.
Data analysis included content analysis for the documents and open and axial coding for the interview data, followed by identification of emergent themes. The outcomes included significant variations and inconsistencies among students, faculty, and staff regarding awareness and understanding of how to respond to an active shooter crisis. Overall, students demonstrated the least awareness and understanding. Based on the findings, a project was developed consisting of recommendations to augment the current active shooter procedures and to develop a comprehensive active shooter policy.
The results of the study could promote increased awareness, understanding, and preparation for students and employees of technical and community colleges regarding an active shooter policy and procedures, thus increasing safety and confidence on campus. Table of Contents List of Tables .v Section 1: The Problem .1 Definition of the Problem. 2 Georgia Gun Laws .8 Evidence of the Problem at the Local Level. 8 Evidence of the Problem from the Professional Literature .13 Guiding Research Questions .15 Review of the Literature .15 Review of the Topic Literature.
16 Firearms at Colleges and Universities. 23 Safe Learning Environment in the Higher Education Environment .28 Section 2: The Methodology.29 Research Design and Methodology Approach .31 Process of Selecting Participants. 31 Researcher-Participant Working Relationship. 35 Measures for Ethical Protection of Participants.
37 Review of Documents. 38 Role of the Researcher. 42 Trustworthiness and Validity. 43 Storage of Data.
44 Data Analysis Results .44 Findings of Faculty and Staff Interviews. 46 Findings of Student Interviews. 51 Document Analysis Findings. 53 Theme of Awareness.
54 Theme of Confidence .59 Dissemination of Information. 59 Perception of Active Shooter Procedures. 61 Conclusion and Further Research. 62 Section 3: The Project .65 Review of the Literature .74 Project Evaluation Plan .80 Section 4: Reflections and Conclusions.83 Project Strengths and Limitations .83 Recommendations for Alternative Approaches .87 Scholarship, Project Development and Evaluation, and Leadership and Change .89 Reflection on Importance of the Work .91 Implications, Applications, and Directions for Future Research .130 Implementation and Conclusion .138 Appendix B: Interview Questions .139 iv List of Tables Table 1.
Collegiate Campus Shootings. Aware of How to Respond to an Active Shooter. Confidence in Security. 58 v 1 Section 1: The Problem Introduction Institutions of higher education are intended to expand students’ thinking, assist students in obtaining practical skills, and offer them opportunities for personal and professional growth (Green, 2013).
However, active shooter crises have jeopardized student pursuit of higher education. public reacts with particular shock to active shooter crises on college campuses due to a constructed belief that higher education sites are excluded from acts of violence (Madfis, 2014). Active shooter crises cannot be predicted. Therefore, it is important that students are prepared for such an event and are aware of the implemented precautions for an active shooter crisis.
Carter (2011) shared that safety precautions include a range of considerations, such as emergency notification systems that inform those in danger when an accident or crisis occurs. Hughes and Johnson (2012) stated that although higher education administrators hope that they will not need a crisis management plan for a campus disaster, a prescriptive plan for various types of emergencies could mean the difference between life and death. The level of awareness of the safety plans and procedures is equally as important as having a prescriptive safety plan. The level of awareness has been highlighted by violence on collegiate campuses, which has become a concern for the campus personnel and the surrounding community (Thompson, Price, Mrdjenovich, & Khubchandani, 2009).
Violence perpetrated through firearm usage increased within the last decade on college campuses in the United States. Kraus (2013) reported that out of 30 active shooter school crises, between September 2 2009 and January 2013, 11 staff members and 36 students were fatally wounded. Active shooter crises that occurred at colleges or universities since year 2010 are shown in Table 1. Table 1 Collegiate Campus Shootings Location Date Fatalities Wounded Source Umpqua Community October 1, 2015 9 0 Chiu, 2015 College, Roseburg, Or Northern Arizona October 9, 2015 1 3 Roberts, 2015 University, Flagstaff, Az Lone Star January 22, 2013 0 2 Kraus, 2013 College-North Harris, Tx Oikos University, April 2, 2012 7 3 Kraus, 2013 Ca San Jose State May 10, 2011 2 0 Kraus, 2013 University, Ca Ohio State March 9, 2010 1 1 Kraus, 2013 University, Oh University of February 10, 3 3 Kraus, 2013 Alabama in 2010 Huntsville, Al Definition of the Problem Problem Active shooter awareness and response was heightened at a community college located in the Southeast portion of the United States.
The active shooter procedures are intended to instruct individuals how to respond in the case of an active shooter crisis on 3 campus. The local Southern college of study (hereafter referred to as Southern Tech) began sharing active shooter information with employees and implementing tools on campus to use during an active shooter crisis. However, there was a problem linked to the implementation of the procedures in the development of the active shooter safety procedures. Implementation refers to methods of how information and awareness regarding how individuals should respond to an active shooter crisis was made available to stakeholders.
The gap in practice that was investigated included the dissemination of procedures to both employees and students. However, only collected data would confirm if there was a variation in how information was shared with students and employees. The goal of this research study was to determine the levels of awareness and understanding of students and employees regarding how to respond to an active shooter. After an announcement regarding implementation of an active shooter procedure at staff development meeting by the former chief of police (R.
Herring, personal communication, April 4, 2013), nearly a year had passed without any updates being posted or dispersed among students, faculty, and staff. The chief, along with an active shooter simulator video, implied at the staff development meeting that the college was preparing to draft a policy for an active shooter. Since that announcement, a new police campus chief was hired in October 2013. After contacting the new police campus chief regarding an active shooter update for the college, he informed me that revising campus policies was on his primary agenda, which included the active shooter policy (M.
Gerbino, personal communication, November 20, 2013). Information was needed as the United States continued to have active shooter crises. 4 The United States has experienced an increase in active shooter events in the last few years (Mechem, Bossert, & Baldini, 2014). Sulkowski and Lazarus (2011) reported that when compared to their nearby communities, college campuses were typically safer; however, violent attacks regarding firearms have increased at colleges and universities.
On October 9, 2015, just over a week after the Umpqua shooting, another student was killed at Northern Arizona University’s Flagstaff campus, which contributed to another week of violence in higher education. After the Umpqua shooting, students stated that firearms should be allowed on campus (Healy & Turkewitz, 2015). Within the last 5 years, several states have begun legally permitting these weapons onto campuses including, Utah (Utah Code Ann. However, Southern Tech prohibits firearms on the college campus.
The campus policy (Georgia code §16-11-127) regarding weapons stated that they were not allowed on campus, and this ban will continue to be reinforced by the new bill (H. Nevertheless, this policy does not make the college immune to an active shooter crisis. An active shooter crisis can place anyone at risk, and of the nearly 12,000 aggravated assaults in higher educational institutions in the United States since 2007, the crisis has caused more than 149 deaths at public and private colleges (Hoang, 2014). Criminal information must be accessible by all colleges and universities.
Guffey (2013) shared that the Clery Act, a federal law developed in 1990 by the U. Congress, mandated that colleges and universities disclose criminal acts on or near their campus in annual reports. The Clery Act was revised in 1998 to implement better support and 5 standardization of the reporting (Scribner et al. The Congressional level of the U.
government deemed it significant enough to require colleges to provide awareness to students, employees, and the public of their campus’ history of on-campus violence or other criminal incidents. The information on the college website is in compliance with this law, and individuals can be made aware of the campus crime statistics via the college’s website. Campus incidents involving firearms have impacted education locally and nationally. In addition to firearms playing a factor in collegiate crimes, attention was given to colleges being adequately prepared for a college shooting.
Delatorre (2011) stated that in the aftermath of the shooting at Virginia Tech, Governor Kaine of Virginia and President Bush commissioned panels to provide preventive ideas that deterred future incidents of mass violence from occurring at higher education institutions. This national action initiated by the Bush administration focused on the importance of colleges and universities being prepared for any active shooter crisis. The initiative influenced postsecondary institutions to increase the prevalence of surveillance cameras, alert systems, and the hiring of more security guards as preventive measurements (Negrea, 2014). Preventive and responsive measurements were created at Southern Tech for a comprehensive active shooter emergency procedure plan.
Stakeholders’ perceptions of the active shooter procedures were indicative of how well the procedures were implemented. If higher education institutions are prepared for an active shooter, the procedures must ensure that students and employees are aware of how to react to an 6 active shooter situation. The following information was developed in 2010 regarding how to respond to an armed person at the study site.