NPR reported today on some of the things that are being called for to “fix” the problem posed by all the shootings in the nation’s institutions of higher education. I’m not going to go into all of them, but one caught my attention. The solution advocated was for the school to have a system that text messaged all the students if a shooter happened or a bomb was threatened or some other similar thing happened. Issues with the ability of the system to handle say 36,000 sudden text messages on a campus like Mizzou aside, I wondered a few things.
- This requires that all students have a cell phone and that they register it with the school. Or will the school issue cell phones?
- Most of these shooters seem to shoot up classrooms, not dorms, not football games, and not cafeterias. Assuming that students are conscientious they will have any cell phones on silent and will be taking notes. Can you picture how some crusty math prof would react if his students kept getting and receiving messages during his lecture. So the folks who potentially most need to know, are least likely to be getting the messages.
- Finally, I can’t help but note that these are not largely attacks planned and carried out by groups. They seem to be one shooter going on a rampage. As soon as a shot is fired, anyone in the vicinity just got instant warning faster than any pre-programmed text message and any text message would arrive after the shooting. Only in a Virginia Tech type scenario where the shooter takes a break, would text messages help and most modern colleges would now immediately shut down in that situation because of Virginia Tech.
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