By Alex Warner ’15, Contributor

On April 2, seven students were killed in a shooting at Oikos University, a private Korean Christian university located in Oakland, California, making it the deadliest U.S. on-campus attack since Virginia Tech in 2007. One L. Goh, 43, walked into the school building armed with a loaded semiautomatic pistol, crazed. The school immediately followed typical lockdown procedure, but the protocol was not sufficient to stop Goh, who shot out a window to a “secured” room.

This incident and others like it prompted schools across the United States to question whether or not established procedures were going to keep students safe during an attack. Many classrooms, just like those at Oikos University, have windows that can be shot or otherwise broken, leaving cornered and helpless students unprotected.

Cincinnati Country Day is one of the many schools now changing its lockdown procedure. Stephanie Lubbers, Upper School Division Head, said that CCDS is joining, “…a new movement nationwide to give teachers more individual decision making responsibility.”

On April 6 during the faculty In-Service day, an Indian Hill Ranger explained the changes to the faculty. The school will soon implement these changes and train students and teachers how to react to different situations in the hope that the new method could save more lives.

“We are not going to be able to predict all scenarios,” Luebbers said, “so it is… better to have a few options available to faculty and staff and students.”

One of the new methods will be a flight attempt: students would try to flee the building if possible towards a safer location. Another method involves students arming themselves with the heaviest objects in the room, be it a textbook or a computer, and throwing these objects at the attacker should he or she enter the “secured” room.

Could fleeing crowds cause mass confusion and disorder even to the point where its effect works against us? Mrs. Luebbers responded, “Our new system includes sounding the alarm and then giving details regarding the lockdown.”

These new methods could make it easier to plan ahead and decide a course of action that would help save students’ lives. Knowing where danger is, where danger is headed, and what exactly the danger is, is key to figuring out the best way to stay safe.

Photo courtesy of i.i.com