Carlie Pracht
Lantern Staff
On Thursday, Oct. 10 at about 8:30 a.m., students and faculty were alerted through Grizzly Safe that a report of an armed intruder at the Holly Frontier Refinery had been sent to the Butler County Sheriff’s Department that morning.
The Butler Community College Campus Police were notified via 911 radio traffic, according to the Grizzly Safe Alert.
Campus Police monitored and patrolled the south side of campus until Sheriff Kelly Herzet reported that there was no threat and that all the schools and the county as a whole was safe.
Incidents such as this may cause concern for students and faculty who are unaware of what were to happen had the college needed to be put on lock down.
Chief of Police Jason Kenney discussed what would happen had lock down protocol been needed.
“If any of the campuses are in immediate danger from either a natural or man-made event, sometimes it’s just safer to have people stay where they are and be safe then out and about,” Kenney said. “For instance, an active shooter would warrant a lock down because we want to lessen the number of potential targets. The same goes for a weather event where there has been damage such as power lines down for example.”
Butler has a Critical Incident Management Team (CIMT) that fills FEMA’s dedicated Emergency Support Functions for incidents.
“We have also recently initiated a Emergency Building Facilitators group,” Kenney said. “Each building at each campus has two staff or faculty members that receive additional emergency training to handle occurrences that may come up in their buildings.”
In an emergency situation, Grizzly Safe can be activated and text messages, emails and voice call can be sent to everyone in the system.
“Grizzly Safe is the fastest with the push notification,” Kenney said. “We also have time, time permitting, to take over network computers in the classrooms to put messages out. The new digital signage will also relay these emergency messages.”
Kenney said that some useful tips for students and faculty include being patient and finding out who the building facilitators are and ask them any questions you may have, as well as asking the Campus Police.
