Over the weekend unsubstantiated threats regarding ASU or “a university” in Arizona were posted on social media. According to the ASU Police Department, they looked into the postings and took precautionary steps throughout the day on Monday, but only used social media to respond to students’ concerns.
The source, website and content of the threat reinforced that the threats were not credible, according to ASU PD. Police report that the investigation, in collaboration with state and federal agencies, quickly showed that similar threats have been sent to other universities in other cities across the country and overseas in recent weeks on the same website. The ASU alert system is relied upon for relaying vital information during crises or in response to credible threats.
In this case, the University relied on social media to respond to concerns raised by the unsubstantiated Internet messages. ASU PD claims that had this been an actual emergency or valid threat ASU police would have sent out instructions on what to do.
ASU students and their parents used social media to question the failure of authorities to alert by text. They posted the following comments on Facebook:
For being a student here at ASU, I am very disappointed with the University. The least you could have done was send out a text, letting us know of the current situation whether it was credible or not. Not everybody goes straight to ASU’s social media to see what the situation is. We have the text program for a reason. If you can text us letting us know that a building has been evacuated for whatever reason, then you can let the thousands of kids who live on campus be aware of a potential school shooting. Very disappointed.
My daughter sat in a empty classroom for 2 hours. She was too scared to go get anything to eat to walk outside of the building she was in. He just waited until her next class and hurry there as quickly as she could. She didn’t get any text messaging or email keeping her in the loop as to what was happening and she has gotten emails from the school before.
The school is very persistent when it comes to phone calls to raise money/donations. Wish they put as much effort into notifying students, faculty and parents when there is a possible threat.
Not everyone can or does check Twitter or Facebook all the time. Everyone does receive texts, though, even if it is just a glance at your screen. The reason people are so upset is that we receive texts at all hours concerning bees or gas leaks, but complete silence on a possible shooter and what that means. Many people were in a panic and refusing to leave buildings because the only thing that was circualting was some vague info that “it was not credible.” More details would have been appreciated by all. What if it had turend out to be credible after all? While a shooting incident did not occur today, most people lost trust in ASU’s ability to keep them safe now because of the poor communication on part of the ASU Police Department and ASU itself.
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ASU PD also used Twitter to not inform students:
ASU Police @ASUPolice
Be vigilant & use the free @ASU @LiveSafeApp: http://bit.ly/1o2ooKO Report suspicious activity to @ASUPolice via video/text/chat/audio
ASU Police @ASUPolice
We are aware of unsubstantiated social media threats to a univ. in AZ. Does not appear credible, safety is paramount. We are investigating
