Active shooter scenario to take place on campus

An active shooter scenario will be held at UW-River Falls on Sept. 21. The scenario will take place in and around the surrounding area of Rodli Commons, and is sponsored by regional first responders and emergency management agencies.

The shooter scenario comes in response to multiple school shootings in recent years and will help the faculty and staff be better prepared if the campus ever experiences such an event. The morning of the Virginia Tech shootings, Chief or Police at UWRF Richard Trende, then public safety director, said that the only scenario he was worried about not being prepared for a shooter scenario if one should ever occur at UWRF, said Blake Fry, special assistant to the chancellor.

“The plan has been implemented for years,” Fry said. “Now that we have the scenario on campus we will be better prepared as a campus if such an event ever takes place. We will be able to test our ability to communicate during a shooter situation and better prepare our emergency response as well.”

Students have been asked to stay away from the area in and around Rodli Commons as much as possible during the scenario. There will be no live ammunition used so no one will be in any harm it is just so the scenario doesn’t get interrupted, Fry said.

“We will have officers placed around Rodli Hall to escort those on the east side of campus to the rest of campus so the scenario can run smoothly,” Fry said.

The active shooter scenario also gives UWRF staff, faculty and emergency response teams the ability to know what they need to improve on in order to successfully be prepared for such an event.