An internal review of the May 14 stabbing on Clark College’s campus found that many of the school’s emergency response systems were ineffective and that some staff were not adequately prepared for the situation.
The findings contrast with a Clark spokeswoman’s statement last month that the response was “a success.”
The review drew upon feedback from campus security, emergency management, student affairs, the faculty union and three community events following the May incident.
“Campus safety is an ongoing priority for the college. Clark leadership feel that this incident/review had really motivated individual departments to evaluate their areas of operation and identify vulnerabilities for improvement,” college spokeswoman Maureen Chan-Hefflin said Monday.
On May 14, a Clark College employee was stabbed in the neck while sitting outside the Archer Gallery by a man who escaped on foot. The employee was treated on the scene and sent to the hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening. The incident prompted an hourlong lockdown of the campus about 10 minutes after police arrived on the scene.
The incident’s after-action report, obtained by The Columbian, stated that campus security excelled in administering first aid to the victim and alerting emergency response partners.
The list of identified areas of improvement, however, was more extensive.
Chan-Hefflin said last month that despite the issues, internal data showed that the school’s alert system successfully alerted 90 percent of registered devices. The report stated that various alert templates didn’t work as expected, many devices across campus didn’t broadcast the alert properly and that inadequate campus Wi-Fi led some on campus to receive delayed messages or no messages at all.
The report also found many members of the college community — both staff and students — were unfamiliar with emergency protocols and felt there was a lack of training related to such protocols.
As a result, Clark is seeking various departments to review all its emergency response systems, install new loudspeakers in various areas of campus, and offer emergency training to students and employees.
“With our security budget approved, we have the momentum and money to get many of these projects completed, especially during the summer,” Chan-Hefflin said.
However, many of the suggested improvements, upgrades and trainings do not have a listed completion date, rather they are marked “TBD.” Chan-Hefflin said several such changes, such as the installation of new loudspeakers and expanded Wi-Fi, remain without an estimated completion date but that an overall review of the school’s mass notification systems has already been finished.
Continued frustrations
Last month, a handful of Clark faculty leaders shared examples of how they had repeatedly expressed concerns about campus safety systems to school administrators for months prior to the May 14 stabbing.
“Many of the concerns and needed improvements that are identified in the after-action report are the identical concerns that our now-former emergency manager, Jeff Kaliner, as well as the faculty and staff unions, had been raising over the last two years,” said Suzanne Southerland, the president of Clark’s faculty union.
Kaliner, who declined to comment for this story, stepped down from his position at Clark College last week. Vice President of Operations Sabra Sand said in a letter to staff Friday that he would be replaced in the interim by Lindsey McKim, the security officer at Clark’s Columbia Tech Center campus.
Southerland hopes that the review can lead to positive changes, but remains concerned, reiterating that she feels various aspects of the review don’t provide clarity on how and when various improvements will be made.
“Given the fact that our emergency manager is now gone and many of the improvements outlined in the report don’t have a deadline, I don’t know if this report is going to make any difference,” she said. “Look, the bottom line is we need to talk to our students. We need to get input from the faculty and staff. We need clear training that provides specific protocol to follow during an emergency.”
