Kirkwood postpones active shooter drill planned for Election Day

CEDAR RAPIDS — Kirkwood Community College officials on Friday notified the campus they’re postponing an active shooter drill previously planned for Election Day, Nov. 8 — a delay that came after some faculty and staff voiced concern about the drill’s timing and potential to disrupt voting.

In the Friday “special update” announcing the active threat drill would be moved, Kirkwood Public Safety officials said they’re working with the Cedar Rapids Police Department to find an alternative date.

The entities originally picked Nov. 8 for the drill on Kirkwood’s main Cedar Rapids campus solely because it worked for everyone’s schedules, according to Kirkwood spokesman Justin Hoehn. The scenario did not involve and was not associated with the fact that date is Election Day, he said.

Administrative communications about the previously planned drill obtained by The Gazette indicated Cedar Rapids police approached Kirkwood last year about conducting an “active shooter full scale event” on campus and chose Jones Hall for the site of the exercise.

The drill was to serve as an “opportunity to rehearse how we would respond to this type of event,” and it would involve police, EMS, the fire department and Kirkwood Public Safety. Most of the scenario, which would have started after 9 a.m., would have been confined to The Hotel at Kirkwood Center and Jones Hall, which houses the Department of Industrial Technologies on Kirkwood Boulevard SW.

One communication from a Kirkwood administrator indicated, “We were not able to pick the date” and acknowledged the conflict.

“When we realized it would be held on a voting day, they moved the event to Jones Hall,” according to that communication. “This will be top of mind in future planning.”

In hopes of avoiding any confusion on the day, public safety officials planned broad communication — including public signage, messages to students, and text notifications across all regional centers and the Iowa City campus.

Kirkwood’s Cedar Rapids campus hosts two polling places, and its Iowa City campus hosts one polling place.

In an email to Kirkwood’s Iowa City-based humanities faculty this week, Kirkwood Associate Vice President of Liberal Arts Brook Strahn-Koller said she was alerted to concerns about a potential impact on voting and urged faculty not to worry.

“Please do not cancel class,” she wrote. “This drill will be treated by Kirkwood as a full test and will require faculty and staff at all locations to lock down classrooms and offices. You will need to plan for the loss of about 15-20 minutes of class time.”

In that message, Strahn-Koller said the drill date — picked by Cedar Rapids police “and not by Kirkwood” — was unmovable.

“We recognize the date is not ideal but it cannot be changed at this point,” she wrote, reporting Andrew MacPherson — Kirkwood’s associate vice president of public safety and emergency management — had been in touch with the Johnson County voting official about the planned drilled.

“The official is aware and has no concerns about the drill,” Strahn-Koller wrote. “I will be present on the Iowa City campus on this day to help ensure there is no disruption. The drill is not expected to disrupt the flow of people in or out of the facility who are there to vote.”

In addition to communication going out the day of the drill informing students, staff, and faculty about detailed plans, administrators had planned to develop a website “so that information can be easily accessed and shared.”

Although instructors were given directions about locking down classrooms, Strahn-Koller said, “Election officials and voters are expected to be able to carry on duties normally and will not be expected to shelter in place.”

Kirkwood is required to by the federal government to practice an event each year. Next year’s might be related to a hazardous material event, according to Kirkwood administrators.

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com