Colleges now required to 'immediately notify' students, staff during emergencies.
Colleges will now be required to "immediately notify" their students and staff upon confirmation of a significant emergency on campus, such as an active shooter situation, under higher education legislation signed into law Thursday by President George W. Bush. The move follows calls for faster action after shootings at several campuses across the country, including the deaths of 32 students and employees at Virginia Tech in 2007.
"Immediate notification of an emergency will empower students and employees to better be able to protect themselves and save lives," said Jonathan Kassa, the Executive Director of Security On Campus, Inc., a national non-profit organization that worked with both families of the Virginia Tech shooting victims and campus law enforcement to help develop the new warning provision
This provision "will go a long way to make our nation's campuses and students safer and improve colleges' readiness and in the event of emergencies," added U.S. Representative Carolyn McCarthy (NY-4), one of the leading proponents of the measure in Congress. "Using both high and low tech means, many institutions across the country have already adopted this approach and are issuing campuswide emergency notifications."