In the United States, a disturbing trend of fatal shootings at schools has left police and security guards in charge of protecting students in constant search of better ways of securing campuses. Recently, this trend “hit home” when a student enrolled in Uniontown Area High School was arrested after a classmate overheard him making threats to carry out a school shooting. 

Mike Humiston, director of the Department of Public Safety at Waynesburg University, believes the incident in Uniontown resonates with staff and students at Waynesburg because of the proximity. 

“When we hear about things on the news and different social media [platforms] about things that happen in Texas or the state of California, we are a little insulated from that simply because of the distance,” Humiston said. “When it’s a little bit closer to home in Uniontown, which is around 20 minutes away, we take a harder look at that.” 

The Department of Public Safety uses these tragic occurrences to better prepare themselves to prevent and manage a similar situation. One of the better ways to do this is to increase the number of officers on campus, which the Department of Public Safety has done with the recent hiring of Officer Steve Cooper. 

“Having another person on our staff that can help do some of the day-to-day stuff that our officers do on a regular basis, coupled with [Cooper’s] experience as a police officer, chief of police, working on the drug task force in Fayette County, those are all great things for our university,” Humiston said. “I think that shows the people associated with the university that we are being proactive.” 

These examples of security having to deal with shooter threats have increased the awareness of the possibility of one happening at Waynesburg, Humiston added. 

“We see the things that are happening in other places and we are going to do whatever we have to do to make sure we aren’t one of those statistics,” Humiston said. “So, bringing in someone like Officer Cooper is a great thing for us.” 

Another major part of handling an active shooter is having an established plan. Humiston said that plans have been put into place with the help of the Director of Security Operations and Emergency Management and Instructor of Criminal Justice at Waynesburg University, James Tanda. 

“From being proactive, we have put some things into place with the help of Jim Tanda,” Humiston said. “We have a plan that, in the event we have an incident that occurs on our campus, we at least have a plan to handle certain situations.” 

Humiston also said that protecting the University is not just the job of the Department of Public Safety, both local and state police are also involved. 

“It’s a combined effort by a number of different people and agencies to help protect our students, faculty, staff and university as a whole.” 

Humiston wants students to know that the Department of Public Safety will act swiftly if an active shooter ever has a presence on campus, and that they should not hesitate to call security if there is any suspicion of an active shooter. 

“We are coming, hang on, we are going to get there and our response time is very minimal,” Humiston said. “Our best defense against anything that could happen or may be happening is our students. They care about each other and they will call security when they find something or a person that is suspicious, and then we respond to it.”