Campus

Northeast implements Tiger Alert system

By Michael H. Miller, Special to The Beacon

Northeast Mississippi Community College has teamed up with one of the growing leaders in rapid communication systems, SchoolCast, to help inform its students, faculty and staff of emergencies on campus.

“During an emergency event, we will continually update users of the system on what is happening,” said Northeast chief of campus police and security Dean Bearden, “When new developments occur, we will continue to update system users until the ‘all clear’ is given.”

Tiger Alert allows school officials to contact faculty, students and staff within a matter of minutes of an emergency and is part of the college’s comprehensive campus emergency response procedures.

“Anything that is considered an ‘emergency’ will be included in the alerts. This includes, but is not limited to, severe weather events, school shooting, train derailment (chemical spills), etc.,” Bearden said. “School cancellations due to severe weather or other emergency events will be alerted through this system. However, this system will not be used to notify students of school dismissal for spring break, Christmas break.”

According to Bearden, chief of campus police and certain administrative officials will be authorized to access the system.

By using the Hoover, Ala.-based SchoolCast, Northeast hopes that swift notifications are sent to employees and students via cell phone and regular telephone calls in case of an emergency. Each employee and student of Northeast will select the method that they would like notification via when signing up for the system with cellular phone numbers only used for emergencies and tests of the system.

“During an emergency event, which requires immediate disclosure of information, a voice message will be sent to each cell phone and land line phone in the Tiger Alert system,” Bearden said. “In that message persons in the Tiger Alert system will receive a voice message of what’s going on and how to protect themselves and a notification that further information will follow.”

Text messages will be used when the nature of the emergency is appropriate, according to Bearden.

“If there was a school shooting on campus, there will be a voice message sent to system users until the threat is over,” Bearden said. “In the event of a tornado warning or other severe weather event, a voice message would be more appropriate. In the event of a tornado watch, or a winter weather watch, then a text message may be more appropriate. In that case, the text message should not be more than 120 characters. A simple, ‘Tornado Watch for PrentissCounty, Ms until 2:30 p.m.’ would be sufficient.”