Hillsdale College’s security and emergency management department is producing an informational video about response protocols for active shooter scenarios.

Joe Kellam, director of security and emergency management, said the video will serve as a training resource for faculty and staff at Hillsdale College. He also said one of the main reasons the college decided to produce this video was to ensure faculty have consistent guidance for responding to threats, should the need ever arise.

“There wasn’t a consistent message getting out to all faculty and staff about how to respond to an active violent situation,” Kellam said. “We worked with the administration to come up with a yearly required training that all faculty and staff will watch, and that will give them the tools they need should something ever occur on campus.”

Kellam said violent threat situations often unfold unpredictably, so training must establish a general preparedness among the faculty.

“I can’t necessarily tell them, ‘Turn left, turn right,’ in a situation, as everything is situationally dependent,” Kellam said. “Everything is fluid as it’s happening. I just give them the tools they need to make the right decision at the given moment.”

Because of the sensitive and crucial nature of the topic, security aims to make the video high quality and informative.

“We wanted to make this video consistent with what Hillsdale produces, that being a quality video that’s educational in construction and reaches the audience we want it to,” Kellam said. “Part of it will be me in a studio room speaking about some of the procedures, and part of it will be the Associate Director of Security John Wilmer walking through different locations and discussing what to do.”

Kellam also said that in addition to the interview-style and walkthrough portions, the video will include demonstrative elements in order to give faculty and staff a better understanding of what a crisis situation would actually look like.

“Another part of it will be showing ourselves along with local law enforcement responding to the situation,” Kellam said. “We wanted to put that in there so staff and faculty know what to expect. So when they look out their window, they understand that when somebody’s in body armor with rifles coming down the hallway, that’s our team, in conjunction with other law enforcement.”

Wilmer emphasized that creating a culture of preparedness for violent situations depends on a commitment to security by everyone, not just law enforcement officers.

“Between 2000 and 2018, in 31 of the 37 active shooter incidents at schools, at least one person knew of the shooter’s intent,” Wilmer said. “They basically knew that these were going to happen. That’s what we call ‘leakage of violent intent.’ If someone were spoken to about it, that person didn’t report it. In 22 of those events, two or more people knew.”

Wilmer added that those statistics show how transparency and cooperation between security and law enforcement is key for preventing tragedies.

“It reinforces the ‘If you see something, say something’ slogan,” he said. “If you think about those numbers, 31 out of 37 school shootings could’ve been stopped if someone was just willing to talk about it.”

Wilmer also made it clear that at a school like Hillsdale, vigilance on part of campus security is especially important.

“We’re a very small college with a very large footprint. We have influence nationwide, even more so than that. That level of influence draws things back, and that’s why we have to have a very robust, thorough, and complete security team here.”

Assistant Director of the Dow Journalism Program Maria Servold ’10, holds concerns about faculty preparedness that this video aims to address.

“I have full faith in the security team’s ability to stop an active shooter should they encounter one,” Servold said. “My concern is that faculty and staff, who most likely would be the first to encounter such a person, are not prepared. Many faculty members have told me they don’t know what to do if a shooter enters a classroom building and begins shooting before security can get there.”

Servold said she is glad the college is making the video.

“The production of this video is a welcome and necessary step to ensuring that those of us working with students daily know how to keep them safe,” Servold said. “I’m grateful the security team is taking the time to make it.”