Social media jeopardizes safety during school lockdowns, shootings
Students took to social media to share videos and tweets during the deadly shooting rampage in Florida but local officials are reminding students not to use social media during a serious situation.
Different videos, photos and tweets showed the chaotic moments as a gunman opened fire last week at Florida high school. Many students sharing their location publicly.
“The students are assuming that there’s only one person that’s trying to harm them when you tweet your location you’re defeating the purpose of a lockdown which is to lock the entrances, to hide the students from any potential threats and you’re assuming that there’s only one. So giving them your location or making it public where you are, that doesn’t jeopardize your safety. It defeats the purpose of those drills that schools go through,” El Paso Police Department Sgt. Robert Gomez said.
Sgt. Gomez adds phones can be a major distraction for students and law enforcement.
“As far as filming, it’s just like driving when you’re filming anything you’re distracted. You’re focused on one point when you knew really need to be focusing on your surroundings. It’s a serious situation and the person should be focusing on, should I run? Should I hide? Or do I have to fight? And if you’re preoccupied trying to tweet your location, or text somebody, capture video, you’re not paying attention to your surroundings and it’s very important that you do at that moment in time. Video evidence is very important to us but we would never ask for anybody to videotape something going on that could jeopardize your safety. So for example, in a school shooting or with an active shooter, we would prefer that students or bystanders get themselves a safety, get others to safety, as opposed to trying to capture what’s going on,” Sgt. Gomez said.
Officials at YISD tell ABC-7 it’s a balancing act, because students should alert authorities immediately. Adding that parents want to know if their students are safe
“It’s a real balancing act. Do we discourage use during a lockdown, absolutely. Are we going to punish somebody? No,” Associate Superintendent Pat O’Neill said.
EPISD officials tell ABC-7 students are not allowed to have their phones out during a lockdown, urging students to stay quiet, stand still and do not use cell phones.
“If they’re on their cell phone they’re going to alert the possible insured or the shooter of their location. If the intruder has the phone number of the person they’re looking for, they may be dialing it up hoping it’ll ring, hoping somebody will answer, hoping somebody will hear them and to locate that person. So that’s what we tell everyone. To stay off the phone. Do not use your cell phone and wait for law enforcement to give you for the directions,” EPISD’s Safe & Secure Schools Manager Manuel Chavira said.
El Paso Police say they understand cell phones and social media are apart of students daily lives, but it’s important to know when to draw the line.
“It’s not worth anybody’s life to film something as it’s happening. It’s our culture now. People are doing it regularly but in those situations they need to really focus on running away, hiding if they must and at last resort fighting should they be cornered. And those are the things that should be going through somebody’s head especially when there’s an active shooter,” Sgt. Gomez said.
Sgt. Gomez tells ABC-7 video evidence is important, but in a situation like this, they ask that you focus on your safety and getting others to safety as well.
