#JCCC: Reports Leading to Lockdown Unsubstantiated, Uncorroborated

Posted by the President’s Office to the Johnson County Community College electronic mail server, Infolist:

From: InfoList
Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2014 9:09 AM
To: InfoList
Subject: [infolist] A Message from Joe Sopcich

Dear Colleagues,

A few weeks ago the college endured its first – and we hope its only – lockdown experience.  Our campus community handled the situation in exemplary fashion. Nevertheless, in the days since the situation occurred, several areas have held debriefings to go over what our strengths were and what we could do to improve. This has proven a tremendous learning experience for all of us.

The JCCC Police department has closed its investigation of the matter, concluding that the two reports of a person with a weapon on campus on Sept. 4, 2014, did not corroborate each other and neither could be substantiated.

As I said in my initial message to you all, I am very grateful for the safe resolution of the situation and the quick, calm actions of JCCC Police, Emergency Preparedness, faculty, staff and students. We are also grateful to the commanders, police officers and officials from Overland Park Police, the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, Johnson County Park Police, the Kansas Highway Patrol, Johnson County Fire Department and Med-Act, who arrived on campus and assisted in keeping our campus safe.

We learned that our training paid off. We also saw where we could make improvements – for example, how the installation of classroom phones that function as extended public address systems will reinforce messages sent on the public address systems in the hallways. That effort was already underway and should be completed in January.

Our common goal is to make the JCCC campus community the safest learning environment possible.  This experience will help us achieve that goal.  We appreciate all you do to keep our community safe.

Sincerely,

Joe

#JCCC Lockdown Timeline

The timeline established by the JCCC Alerts issued via email, text, and on campus video monitors.

3:40 PM – Lockdown order  – Suspicious person with weapon

JCCC Alert – The Campus PD has received a report of a suspicious person with a weapon. All occupants in CC, GEB, OCB, COM, LIB need to lock-down at this time.

3:45 PM – Lockdown order  – Suspicious person with weapon

JCCC Alert – The Campus PD has received a two reports of a person with a weapon. No confirmation of the subject has yet been made.

3:53 PM – Lockdown order  – Suspicious person with weapon

JCCC Alert 3– Campus PD has received reports of a person with a weapon. No confirmation of the subject has been made.CC,COM,SC,LIB,SC,GEB,OCB remain in lockdown.

4:16 PM – Message #4 Suspicious person with weapon

JCCC Alert 4-Campus Police and Overland Park PD are assessing the scene and conducting seaches of the campus.  We appreciate your patience.  Stay in place.

4:31PM – Message #5 Suspicious person with weapon

JCCC Alert 5-Police are ordering a full campus lockdown.  Everyone should remain in a safe place until released by police. Entrances to campus are closed.

4:41 PM – Message #6 Suspicious person

JCCC Alert 6- JCCC remains on full-lockdown searching for a suspicious party.  All classes are canceled for Thursday, September 4.

5:39 PM – Message #7 Suspicious person

JCCC Alert 7- Police are releasing building occupants one by one.  Please remain in place until released by PD.  Please be patient.

7:05 PM – JCCC All Clear

JCCC Alert – The lockdown of buildings at JCCC has been lifted.  There is no longer a viable threat.  All classes will resume on September 5, 2014.

 

#JCCC President Speaks of Lockdown

Posted to the Johnson County Community College electronic mail server, Infolist:

From: InfoList
Sent: Friday, September 05, 2014 7:23 AM
To: InfoList
Subject: [infolist] A message from Joe Sopcich

To members of our campus community,

Yesterday we experienced our college’s first “lockdown” situation. Rest assured it was not a drill. It was an alarming and sobering experience. As you know from our alerts, we had reports of a weapon on campus. Please know that our police force takes such reports with extreme seriousness. We are all fortunate that they do. Their challenge is always to verify the reports before we take action. The margin for error is non-existent. In this case, as we will in all cases, our decisions were based on what is the safest approach possible for our campus community. Ultimately, in this case, the first alert was sent out at 3:40 p.m. and was followed by seven additional alerts. The outcome of this situation was a good one, and the room-by-room search was lifted with the final alert sent at 7:05 p.m.

We would like to thank everyone on campus for their calmness and clear-headedness. We are proud of the way our JCCC Police Force responded to the initial report. Their performance reassures us that we’re in good hands. Our emergency preparedness group was on top of it all and proved excellent. Additionally, we got reports that, throughout the college, people were following their ALICE training and doing what they needed to do to ensure the safety of our students and colleagues. Lastly, members of our leadership team assumed their pre-assigned responsibilities and performed them admirably. We’d also like to thank the Overland Park Police Department, the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department, the Kansas Highway Patrol and MedAct for their professionalism and quick deployment on campus. We are fortunate to live in a community blessed with such professional law enforcement.

As we all know, security on our campus is of paramount importance to us all. This experience proved to be a learning opportunity for everyone involved. We will now set out to evaluate our performance and identify ways we can make it better. Lastly, and again, special thanks go to everyone on campus for handling this situation so well.

Sincerely,

Joe

 

Evacuating #JCCC

Leaving the Billington Library after a few hours on lockdown due to a report of a suspicions person with a weapon on campus. Sorry for the vertical angle.

A few thoughts as I leave campus after the evacuation of the library.