With recent active shooter events occurring in the mainland, the University of Guam is updating their emergency procedures and beginning an awareness campaign to better campus safety.
Felix Mansapit, UOG safety administrator, said he is working on a campaign to promote active shooter safety procedures to students and faculty.
With the help of David Okada, UOG chief planning officer, and James Hollyer, interim associate dean of cooperative extension services, Mansapit is hoping to publicize the campaign by the end of March.
“The approach that we’re taking right now is that we’re updating all our procedures,” Mansapit said. “Once we get that all together and placed on the website, [we want to] get it out on hard copies, place it on bulletin boards, and get it into the classrooms, get it to the professors and try and go ahead and get on a campaign.”
On March 1, United States Homeland Security officers visited UOG and gave training to almost 50 faculty, staff, student and community members. Mansapit said he is coordinating another training from the U.S. Marshals hopefully by the end of March.
The team is hoping this campaign informs 50 to 60 percent of the University.
Robert Babac, UOG student, speaks about how important this campaign is.
“With the recent school shootings around the United States, who knows what could happen here on Guam,” said Babac. “I for one did not know about the campus safety rules for when an incident with an active shooter occurs and I feel as though they need to be better announced.”
The University promotes the “Run, Hide, Fight” protocol in the event of an active shooter situation.
This protocol is also promoted by the Guam Homeland Security/Office of Civil Defense, according to Jenna Blas, the agency’s public information officer.
“It is important for the community to be aware of DHS’ “Run, Hide, Fight” campaign in order to be prepared and understand the steps to take during an active shooter situation. The reality is that active shooter situations can happen anywhere, at any time,” Blas said.
Mansapit explained “Run, Hide, Fight”: “When the first active shooter events started to come out, [safety agencies] came up with the theory that first off, it’s just run, get out of the way.”
Mansapit advises that if you’re in an open area and are able to flee, then that is exactly what you should do.
“But what happens if you’re in the situation where you’re in this building and the shooter’s coming and you just can’t get out? What if the shooter is blocking your path? So the next thing is to hide.”
The UOG safety procedures outline a list of things to do when hiding: turn off the lights, lock the door if you can, put all devices on silent, do not evacuate until instructed to do so, and call 911 and do not hang up until instructed to do so.
“If all that fails, if the shooter decides to come into the area, if they break in, then take anything you can to use as a weapon: a chair, a fire extinguisher, keys,” Mansapit continued.
This is the fight portion of the method, and it is a last resort.
Mansapit advises that if you’re with a group when the shooter is coming in, it is best to group up on the individual.
“When you have unified movements against a single person, the unified movement will win, automatically – especially if he’s coming in and he’s not able to raise his weapon in time. That type of surprise will hopefully subdue the active shooter.”