Contact: Maridith Geuder
STARKVILLE, Miss.--An early-morning emergency exercise Friday at Mississippi State was the literal wake-up call for many members of the university's Crisis Action Team.
Responding to a scenario in which there was a simulated shooting with injuries, team members began receiving calls about 6 a.m. to report to campus for the unannounced exercise.
"We had a detailed script, and we made the call to our police dispatchers at approximately 5:45 a.m.," said Mike White, Dean of Students and one of the team's leaders.
Dispatchers, who had no advance knowledge of the exercise, followed emergency protocols and alerted University Police and the on-call incident commander.
"Our full Crisis Action Team then was activated, and we treated the incident as though it were really happening," White said.
Incident commander Bill Kibler, vice president for student affairs, said campus police and SWAT teams were dispatched according to the exercise script and reported back throughout the simulation to the command center. A simulated Maroon Alert message was sent at 6:06 a.m., followed by additional simulated communication protocols with area media and the campus.
"We tested all of our emergency communication channels, including text messaging, e-mail, Web announcements, instant messaging, and loudspeaker announcements," Kibler said.
The team also planned for media staging, parent notification, campus lockdown, and counseling, among other responses.
Approximately 50 staff members were involved in the exercise, which concluded about 8:30 a.m. with a detailed debriefing.
"We learn something from each of these exercises and are able to spot weaknesses and refine procedures," Kibler said. "Each time, we feel better prepared for a real emergency."
For more information, see http://www.emergency.msstate.edu/.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.