THURSDAY, January 2, 2014
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One year ago Hi: -2.6 C Low: -8.5 C Record High: 10.2 C (2007) Record Low: -26.7 C (1952)
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Thompson Rivers University safety manager Stacey Jyrkkanen shows the new Alertus warning system. Says Jyrkkanen: “My goal is to make sure everybody goes home safe every day.” Dave Eagles/KTW
Getting safety message across — all platforms By Dale Bass STAFF REPORTER dale@kamloopsthisweek.com
It’s Stacey Jyrkkanen’s job to imagine the unthinkable. A train derailment like the one that decimated much of LacMegantic in Quebec. An accident on the hazardous-goods road network in the city. A plane falling out of the sky as it approaches Kamloops Airport. A building on fire. A shooter on campus. It’s Jyrkkanen’s job to go beyond imagining it, however, to developing plans to deal with anything that could jeopardize the safety of everyone at Thompson Rivers University.
As the university’s manager of occupational-health and safety, and medical services, she has to develop plans and strategies and figure out how to do something like evacuate a university. Compounding her job is the simple reality that many of the people she interacts with to get her message across are adults — young and old — who cannot even imagine something like a campus shooting happening in Kamloops. Jyrkkanen reminds them that, just a decade ago, that situation did unfold in the city as a provincial-government employee took staff in his office hostage.
Two people were slain before the gunman killed himself. One tool the university now uses is TRU Alert, an emergencynotification system that can send out key messages through desktop and mobile-online alerts should an emergency arise. Jyrkkanen said a lot of time went into preparing the array of messages, based on the type of emergency, so they can be issued quickly. For example, if one building is involved, all that would be required would be to update the preset message with that information and then send it out to emails, through texts to
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cellphones or to message recorders on home phones. “What we’d be telling them is what has happened, where it has happened and what they need to do to be safe,” Jyrkkanen said. The goal is to make sign-up mandatory; systems are being reviewed that will require students registering for courses to join before they can proceed with their registrations. Jyrkkanen is also encouraging family members to sign up. “Imagine you’re in Toronto and your child is here and you see there’s been something happening here. “You want to know
right now,” she said. Receiving a message on the status of the emergency might reduce phone calls to the campus that could potentially flood the switchboard. Jyrkkanen said she and her department do as much teaching as possible on how to react in the case of an emergency. She noted there has been some discussion the programs should be mandatory for all campus staff. “We could try to teach all the students but, if something happens, you look to your instructor for what to do,” she said. The notification
system is “one piece of a larger puzzle,” Jyrkkanen said. Another way her department is planning to educate campus staff will be through a mock exercise in the spring Discussions are ongoing with the Kamloops RCMP to create the scenario of a shooter loose on campus. The safety department also works with staff to recognize the signs of someone on campus who is in crisis. “Serious violence is an evolutionary pathway,” she said. “It is rare to see someone just snap and do something. So, the good thing about that
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is if people can recognize the signs, they can intervene sooner and, hopefully, avoid anything more serious happening.” The notification system, includes include status updates online to which anyone can refer. That messaging component requires police assistance to create the proper messaging, Jyrkkanen said, because the reality is, in the case of someone causing the safety issue, they might also be receiving the threat-assessment information on their phone or tablet. “My goal,” she said, “is to make sure everybody goes home safe every day.”