Midori Allen / Staff Writer
Shootings on college campuses has been happening more frequently across the United States and DMC has taken notice of this and has started hosting Active Shooter Classes provided by the Texas Department of Public Safety.
The Active Shooter Class is currently only available to instructors. Classes have already been held for instructors in the St. Clair Building and the next classes were held last Friday for the Library, including the fifth floor.
“Each department and building is different with safety measures,” said Identify this person Nancy Lee “That is why we are holding classes for each department and building.”
Sylvia “BeBe” Bellfield, registrar at the Collegiate High School said, “The class and videos made me more aware of my surroundings and how to use objects around me for self defense if something were to happen. It was such a positive reinforcement for safety; I want the students to see it.”
Although the classes aren’t mandatory for instructors yet, Kelly White, director of the DMC Safety Risk Management department not correct said that eventually he wants to make the classes mandatory for instructors.
Lee said, “We recommend teachers take the classes because if there were to be an active shooter on campus, students will go to the teacher for instructions on what to do.”
Though the Active Shooter Class isn’t available to students yet, there are similar videos available online that can be found through the student’s WebDMC account. The links for the videos are in the left hand corner and there are two separate videos that are called “Training Video on Campus Threats” and “Training Video on Shots Fired.”
White said, “We don’t want students to feel like a herd of sheep, because there are wolves out there. We want the students to feel like lions.”
