On March 1, a shooting at a middle school in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, resulted in the death of a 15-year-old boy after two days in intensive care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLaw enforcement’s calling it a targeted killing \u2014 so, more than a school shooting, what you’re really looking at is a murder that happened to take place on school grounds,\u201d director of the criminal justice program Samuel Jeffrey said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, the student was shot in a hallway of Watson Chapel Junior High School, and the suspect who fled the scene is now being held in a detention center with a bond of $1 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe’ve never had anything even remotely like that here at Harding,\u201d Director of Public Safety (DPS) Craig Russell said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harding is fortunate in that regard, but the University is not without other incidents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe do have situations where there may be a suspicious person on campus, [and] we do have situations where there is a dispute between people on campus,\u201d Russell said. \u201cWe’ve had physical altercations between students [and] even between employees in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Russell, the University has a threat assessment team that includes officials from the DPS office, student health services office, counseling center and student life office, as well as Executive Vice President David Collins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe kind of advertise to the faculty and staff that if you see anything or hear anything that might be suspicious and could potentially be threatening in nature, then report that to any one of these individuals that’s on the threat assessment team,\u201d Russell said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The residence life coordinators (RLC) and resident assistants (RA) have mandatory training that includes plans for many different types of emergencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe discussed a lot about active shooters [and] what we would do in those scenarios,\u201d\u00a0 Pryor Hall RLC Mary Fish said. \u201cMy [RA] team and I worked together to create a plan if we were to have an active shooter come to our dorm, and it’s something that we’ve watched training videos for and I feel that our public safety is very prepared for.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harding\u2019s DPS officers said they are especially prepared for any situation that might be a threat to students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur office is very well trained and very well equipped to deal with that and respond very quickly,\u201d Russell said. \u201cThe reason that we have armed officers on campus is so that if that ever happened \u2014 in the unlikely event that that ever happened \u2014 that we’re prepared to deal with that very, very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The DPS office is open at all times, and there is always a live person who is available to take calls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe try to make sure that students know how to contact us \u2014 we can’t anticipate every possible thing that might come up on campus, including emergencies,\u201d Russell said. \u201cWhat we do want to provide is a way for you to contact us very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DPS may be contacted at 501-279-5000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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