Page 2: The Sheridan Sun.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Turner holds public lockdown forums
Stacey Escott
News
Sheridan president Dr. Robert
Turner led meetings on Monday to
discuss last Friday’s lockdown.
The gatherings were packed
with students, faculty and con-
cerned parents. The forums let the
Sheridan community raise ques-
tions and concerns regarding the
emergency.
“Every time there is an incident
at another institution or at Sheridan
that’s related, we debrief, we learn,
we re-visit our emergency prepared-
ness program,” said Turner.
Turner began by saying the
press could record the forum up
until a certain point, and then he
requested that all recording devices
were turned off so that people could
speak freely, say what they need
to say and talk about their experi-
ences.
He proceeded to give a detailed
chronology of the events that took
place just after 2 p.m. on Friday
afternoon. Throughout the forum,
Turner stressed that it was up to
him and security to decide what to
do in the first three minutes before Dr. Robert Turner responds to questions at the open forum held in the
the police completely took over and Sheridan residence. For full color photos of the lockdown, see page 8.
were in full control.
There was a person the police
Turner confirmed that police were interested in. However, the one
are looking for a person of interest
teacher and eight students who had
related to the event. seen him initially were all brought
Police sweep Sheridan’s Trafalgar Campus looking for gunman
Continued From Page 1
Minutes after the call was made, Halton
tactical response swarmed the campus, blocking
off all entrances and leaving students and parents
on the outside wondering what was going on.
Students and staff, who were trapped inside the
building, at first thought it was a joke. But as the
minutes, then hours passed, they quickly realized
it was no drill. Officers, meanwhile, made their
way from floor to floor, classroom to classroom,
methodically searching for the suspect.
Jim Coliopoules was outside when Halton
Police first arrived on scene.
“A bunch of cops just showed up and I heard
a cop [on the] radio say, make sure you bring a
shotgun...”
Sheridan student Evan Gervais was one of
the thousands of students trapped inside the
school.
“We were just in class and we heard the
announcement go off saying there was a lock-
down and it’s not a drill. So everyone just turned
off the lights, shut their laptops, [and] went up
against the wall. Some were underneath desks
and then we just had to wait. Then, after waiting,
the [tactical] team came in, barged in, checked
the room and made sure no one was in there that
was not supposed to be there, and then we just
waited for the police to escort us out.”
Gervais said that students trapped inside
his classroom remained calm and showed no
signs of panic.
The two roadways leading into the campus
were a sea of police and ambulance vehicles,
as up to three different police services were on
scene for the manhunt. Tactical officers from
both Hamilton and Peel were on hand to provide
additional resources to assist in the search.
“We acted on [the information] and began
our response, which is typically to deploy our
tactical units and begin clearing floors to ensure
the safety of the students,” said Halton Police
Insp. Jackie Gordon, who was on the scene.
had a weapon.
“We have cameras all over this
campus, [we were looking] at two
different views of the person that
they were looking for. He had a
camouflage jacket and detailing,
and something that was tubular
[that] looked like a gun,” Turner
said.
Turner also said that there were
between 20 and 30 police officers
studying video footage, using both
freeze frame and blow up tech-
niques but could not rule out that
it wasn’t a gun.
After at least an hour of delib-
eration between the chief of tacti-
cal and the chief inspector, it was
determined that the individual in
question was not carrying a gun.
The second half of the forum
was open to questions and opinions.
Some praised the lockdown.
Some expressed their concerns
that they didn’t feel safe.
Turner said numerous times
that the college is working together
with the police to investigate fur-
ther.
They will have a new assess-
Jimmy Toplak ment of Sheridan’s Emergency
Preparedness Plan ready by the end
of February.
“We are the most prepared
into the library to identify the indi- college in the system, but we really
vidual police took into custody.
do need that feedback,” Tuner said.
They were able to rule him out as “We have so much we are going to
the person they thought may have
learn from this incident.”
Halton tactical officers storm the Trafalgar Campus Von Jeppesen
Gordon said the search focused on the Gordon commended college officials for
campus library, the SCAET Wing and residence. their co-operation and efficiency during the
Video surveillance originally showed someone lockdown. “It [was] a lot easier for us to do our
entering through the doors providing access to job in terms of clearing the building.”
residence. As a precaution, officers searched the As students exited the building, arrange-
entire perimeter of the campus. ments had already been made with the Town of
A male matching the description of the Oakville for transportation to town hall to allow
person on the video was detained by police, but worried friends and parents to pick up students.
was later released after questioning. Oakville Transit also provided buses to keep
“There was a student that was detained… students out of the cold. Similar plans were made
but that party was cleared shortly after that inves- with the on-campus daycare staff.
tigation was concluded,” said Gordon. “Due to the amount of traffic currently here
At about 5 p.m., police determined that the on site, we arranged for the parents to come and
threat had in fact been a false alarm and lifted pick their children up at the day-care centre for
the lockdown. 6 p.m.,” said Gordon.
“It looks very similar to a tripod, however, On a day when typically 9,000 students and
difficult to make the call at the time, obviously 1,300 faculty are at the college, there was no time
erring on the side of caution, as Dr. Turner said, for second-guessing. Some students, frustrated
we all use due diligence in making sure the safety after being stuck locked down, vented about the
of students was the most paramount thing today,” false alarm while exiting. However, after an early
said Gordon. morning shooting at the Louisiana Technical
The lifting of the lockdown created a mass College on the same day, where a nursing student
exodus of students and staff, as officers cleared shot two classmates before turning the gun on
classrooms and escorted them out. herself, the college’s response was appropriate.
Procedures
work: Turner
Brandon Clarke
News
Sheridan’s president and local
police are praising students, faculty
and staff for their actions during the
Feb. 8 lockdown.
The lockdown procedure,
which had been rehearsed on
campus last fall, was put into action
when a man carrying what was sus-
pected as being a gun was spotted
walking through campus.
“We have a lockdown proce-
dure in these dangerous times and
we deployed it today and it worked,”
said Dr. Robert Turner, president
of Sheridan College, following last
Friday’s lockdown.
The lockdown procedure is
intended to minimize the loss of life
and/or injury to students and staff
prior to the arrival of emergency
services personnel, according to
Sheridan’s Emergency Prepared-
ness/ Lockdown Planning and
Procedures.
“When the school goes into
lockdown, the students are asked to
remain in their classroom and they
are to remain there until the police
tell them that it’s safe to leave the
school,” said Sgt. Brian Carr of the
Halton Regional Police.
The theory behind a lockdown
procedure is to create as many
mental and physical barriers for
a gunman as possible, states the
policy.
“The school did an excellent
job in locking down their students,
which made it a lot easier for us
to do our job in terms of clearing
the building,” said Inspector Jackie
Gordon, of the Halton Regional
Police.
Sheridan’s president, who was
actively involved in the organiza-
tion of the lockdown, echoed Gor-
don’s comments.
“The lockdown, as far as I
understand, went very well. We’ve
been taking great care to ensure
that we were ready for any kind of
an incident like this. So obviously
I’m happy that the end result was
that nobody has been hurt,” said
Turner.
Sgt. Carr, who was involved
in the September lockdown drills,
was also pleased with the actions
of Sheridan students, faculty and
staff.
“[They were] excellent. This
drill is something that we practice.
I happened to practice it with them
about four months ago and they are
very educated in this and they real-
ize when that (the public address
system) goes off that we mean busi-
ness and it’s very well adhered to,”
Carr told The Sheridan Sun.
Though the lockdown turned
out to be a false alarm, President
Turner suggested that much can be
learned from the events.
“We’re going to get better at
this as we learn from instances in
other places and then checking and
reviewing our processes which we
do on a very periodic basis,” he
said.