Michigan State conducted 2 secure-in-place drills in 3 years before attack

The night of the February shooting that killed three students and injured five others, Michigan State University sent out alerts to students and staff telling them to secure-in-place.

But MSU conducted only two secure-in-place drills in the three years before the mass shooting, according to documents obtained by the Free Press through a Freedom of Information Act request.

That means few of the more than 50,000 MSU students and 13,000 faculty and staff potentially on campus the evening of the Feb. 13 shooting went through specific drills offered by the university that are intended to save their lives.

After obtaining the secure-in-place drill records, the Free Press asked MSU several questions about the difference between secure-in-place, shelter-in-place and “records of shelter drills that would specifically pertain to active violence and/or an active shooter." MSU police confirmed shelter-in-place and secure-in-place are different drills, but did not mention any details about active violence training.

On Thursday, after initial publication of this story, MSU officials provided documents showing university police offered at least 43 "active violence" training sessions from January 2020 through December 2022. These are not drills, but rather presentations that provide advice about staying safe in the event of a violent situation. That includes discussing securing-in-place, along with other responses to a mass shooting or other threat.

Many of the classes were offered virtually, for anywhere from a handful of attendees to in one case almost 1,300. Anyone working for MSU Student Life and Engagement in the dining and residence halls is also required to receive active violence training as part of the employee onboarding process, said MSU spokesman Dan Olsen.

The university also conducted similar trainings for the Emergency Action Team, people tasked with helping others in the event of any emergency.

Portions of a 2021 presentation used during some sessions include clip art cartoons some may find objectionable. One shows kids hiding in bushes and garbage cans, another with a sign that says, "Gone to my happy place ... back soon."

This slide is part of a 2021 training presentation to members of the Michigan State University Emergency Action Team to help them respond to an active shooter or other emergency scenarios on campus.
This slide is part of a 2021 training presentation to members of the Michigan State University Emergency Action Team to help them respond to an active shooter or other emergency scenarios on campus.

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Students in residence halls are required to conduct two evacuation and sheltering drills every year, but that training is geared toward severe weather or other natural disasters. The university developed specialized training drills for securing-in-place, the guidance frequently reserved for an active shooter or other active violence threat, yet that training is optional, said MSU Department of Police and Public Safety spokesperson Dana Whyte.

"There was no requirement for academic and residential buildings to annually conduct secure-in-place drills. Being that there is no federal or state mandate to make this mandatory, MSU (police) conducted secure-in-place drills upon request from individual buildings or departments," Whyte said in an emailed statement.

Starting this fall, the university will require all students to go through some training to respond to active threats, Whyte said.

The university issued another secure-in-place alert Wednesday, noting reports of a man on or near campus with a knife. The alert was for a specific area of campus and an all-clear was issued within minutes, but new Michigan State University Police Chief Chris Rozman acknowledged the latest alerts, "may have evoked a range of emotions."

MSU'S first secure-in-place drill noted in the released records occurred March 4, 2020, at the Breslin Center, home to MSU's basketball teams and other large events, for staff of the facility. School officials conducted the other secure-in-place drill at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, a science building a little more than a mile south of the MSU Union, on Oct. 26, 2021. A roughly 15-minute exercise conducted with the help of MSU police, the goal of the drill was to test individual secure-in-place locations within the facilities.

MSU also has an "Emergency Action Team," a network of facility representatives trained to assist students, faculty and staff in the event of an active shooting or other emergency.

Portions of a 2021 presentation used during training sessions for this team included clip art cartoons some may have found objectionable. One shows kids hiding in bushes and garbage cans, another with a sign that says, "Gone to my happy place ... back soon."

The training appears to cover how to respond to any number of emergencies, from tornadoes and fires to active shootings.

The first slide of the secure-in-place portion of the training includes the clip art imagery. Other sections of this training note the importance of having a plan in the event of active violence and the ease with which departments and buildings can conduct secure-in-place drills.

Whyte said the potentially objectionable images have not been used in any trainings since 2021.

"We acknowledge that these images may cause concern for some and validate those feelings," Whyte said.

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Campuswide training can be a challenge for any university. Aaron Pembleton, a police captain at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, told student publication the Nebraska News Service after the MSU shooting such training, "would almost be like telling a city that you’re going to do an active threat drill."

But in the wake of the shooting, schools in Michigan and across the country are finding ways to conduct such training. On Tuesday, a University of Michigan department was scheduled to conduct such training for faculty and staff.

"Though we wish this training wasn't necessary, we do hope to see you there," reads the page promoting the drill, noting it comes because of the MSU shooting.

Quinnipiac University, a private college in Connecticut, mandated active-shooter training for all students before the end of the semester, specifically citing the MSU shooting, according to student paper the Quinnipiac Chronicle.

Biola University, a small private college in California, already carried out such a drill after the MSU attack, according to television station KABC.

John Ojeisekhoba, the vice president and chief of campus safety at Biola, is also the head of the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators. In a previous interview with the Free Press he lauded MSU's response. But noted there are locking and other electronic security systems in place at other schools that MSU acknowledged are not currently installed at the East Lansing campus.

Students, professors and staff on the MSU campus that night describe scenes of fear and confusion. Several students and professors talked about an inability to lock their doors, despite this being a crucial component of the university's guidance on securing-in-place.

In response, MSU officials committed to installing door locks easily operated from the inside of classrooms and taking on additional safety measures.

(MSU officials provided new information after the initial publication of this report. The number of secure-in-place drills has been corrected and additional details on training have been added. )

Contact Dave Boucher: dboucher@freepress.com and on Twitter, @Dave_Boucher1.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: MSU had 2 secure-in-place drills in 3 years before attack