Athens, GA

Tuesday’s shooting at Lone Star College was the 5th time in 2013 that someone brought a gun on campus and open fired. Many students are not sure of the proper procedure if there is a gunman at school.

If there is a shooting on campus, the University of Georgia’s notification center, UGA Alert would immediately notify you. The Emergency Operations Manager, Dr. Jim Newton, urges students to update all contact information at www.ugaalert.uga.edu so you can receive notifications via text message, phone call, and email.

However, if there is a shooter in your building, the protocol changes. The UGA police can typically respond in under 2 minutes, but usually the first responders are the people present in the building. Dr. Newton says you should first try to run from the threat, but if that isn’t possible than you should hide in a room with all the lights off. Newton says that if you do end up in the same room as the shooter “fight back and don’t be the victim.”

The UGA bookstore sells emergency kits. There is also a basic emergency preparedness class on February 5th hosted by the university.

Taylor Eisenhauer