After the release of the article “Active shooter preparedness at Highline College: What the policies reveal” Highline’s Director of Public Safety, David Menke sat down with ThunderWord reporter to discuss his office’s response to claims made in the article. Below is the continuation of that interview.
Q: Another thing that was listed in the article was the Emergency Operations Plan (EOP). The current version that we have in there was last revised in 2020, and then the violent shooter section is blocked out. Were you wanting to comment on that?
Menke: “Just a couple thoughts. One, we were awaiting review for our, the newer version is called the Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan. So I believe it just got signed.
We have been waiting for a signature on that. That’s why we didn’t have an up to date one on our webpage. I made that decision because part of the decision was ‘do we just pull this off the webpage?’
I said, ‘Well, I want something there.’ So we did leave it on there. I know in our correspondence we did let you know that one was awaiting signature. So yes. It wasn’t like we just left it up there, like we don’t care. Like this isn’t ever updated, but even though we didn’t have the newest one adapted yet, we still wanted to have something.
So yes, we understood it was outdated, knowing that we were progressing towards an updated version, which should be up there … by the time we released this article it should be up.”
Q: What does it include (regarding active shooters response)?
Menke: “A lot of it is the, um, general emergency management plans for the campus.
I know you mentioned certain areas being redacted and you know, we’ve kind of gone back and forth. Actually, I had a meeting, uh, last week, maybe two weeks ago with all the directors from all the colleges in Washington.
We kind of discussed it a little bit, like what is the newest principle? Do you either not put [active shooter response] up or do you redact it? So, uh, we’re gonna kind of follow what a lot of people seem to be doing now is removing the appendix.
Yes, it does have a lot of the more ingrained Public Safety response, so kind of like the standard operating procedures. These appendixes, we don’t want this to fall in the wrong hands.
Clearly the stuff that we already presented on our webpage and in the classrooms and we train on is what we want students to know.
What Public Safety does for an actual response is a little bit more private because somebody could detail their response in reaction to what they think we’re gonna do if we just clearly lay out all the responses.
You’ll see that more than just security law enforcement’s gonna do the same thing. They’re not going to lay out their response to certain types of incidents because it could be used against them.
Or hurt more people because somebody has that information.”
Q: Is (the active shooter response) part that was redacted in the 2020 version, a part of the appendix?
Menke: “It is part of the appendix, so you will not see it up on the newest version.
You may see it referenced, but there won’t be an appendix to go look at, um, the appendix section, I think will say this page is removed.”
Q: So if a student was looking for Highline specific information (regarding active shooters), is there anything available?
Menke: “I mean the CEMP does address the campus to a point, not necessarily laying it out exactly how, how you said, but they would see a lot of the emergency management plans. How it’s run, seeing that we have a full, complete team that’s able to respond to and handle emergencies on campus.
So that’s the general information of who composes the emergency response team, how do they work, and the incidences that you can handle.
So, not necessarily like what gates and, you know, other than that we have maps of the campus. And I think we have one on our page.”
Q: So, you just want (students) to reference the campus maps in an active shooter situation?
Menke: “Well, I don’t, honestly that’s what I was talking about earlier about just being familiar with where [you’re] at, where are the exits and stuff like that. Because I understand in an emergency someone’s not gonna go pull up a map or go pull up a plan.
That’s why [a student should] have a plan, which is [to] be familiar if your classrooms are in 29 and 21, then be familiar where your classroom is in relation to multiple exits. Don’t leave yourself like, I only go to go this way because it’s the only way I come in.
Just, being aware of where other exits are. You know, they’re just preparing you, giving you the information. We don’t have the ability to go see every single student and tell them the layout of every single classroom that they’re in relation to.
Some of it is taking ownership as a student for their safety, being aware of where exits are and being familiar with some of the classroom diagrams. I know it’s a lot to ask from students. Sometimes they don’t wanna look at that.”
Q: Last question I had was regarding the FBI forum. I know at the time you said it wasn’t possible to record. Could you explain that decision as to why it wasn’t (recorded, and) available for people that couldn’t be there?
Menke: “Honestly, the forum was intended to be in person at first, and then we got a lot of employees that were asking for a Zoom portion. I know [employees] worked from home.
So trying to be flexible with making sure that people could attend, we did open it up to Zoom. However, when the FBI agents got there, they did let us know that some of the agents were operating in the field and they couldn’t be recorded.
Their material was also considered private, so they didn’t want that recorded as well.
So we made the decision that the best way for them to provide the information and not have people at home taking pictures of their screen, which we wouldn’t know, was just not to have it up at all.
So it was a last minute decision based on what they asked for. So it did make it a challenge, it wasn’t how we envisioned it. So it almost has that image of not being prepared, unfortunately.”
Q: Would you consider an event in the future where Highline, or Public Safety, could talk about this, and lead it? (Estimates are there were four students present) and the rest of those present were staff. Are there any plans for the future to do something more accessible?
Menke: “One, I talked to Francesca about making sure our drills were bi-annually and that has been our goal.
We do, unfortunately, sometimes just don’t have the bandwidth, which I know it’s not an excuse. I just wanna say our goal is to have a bi-annually. Okay, but yes, there can be a possibility of doing something in the future, with either an agent that can be just present or with the police.
I have a pretty good relationship with the Des Moines Police Department, so I know I can get their chief of police or one of their assistant chiefs to join that.
We wanted to provide a different aspect of it. We’ve had it before with the police and it wasn’t always well received, I guess. So we just wanted to show a different aspect of that and we thought that bringing the FBI in would be an aspect of it. That was our vision. It doesn’t always go as you plan.
We definitely do not want to have it where we can’t show anything online. It does make it harder having, trying to keep up with this hybrid environment, which I’m learning. And I will have to think of new creative ways to get around it.”
Q: Was there anything else you’d like share?
Menke: “I know you mentioned [in the article] the incident that happened in 2018. It was an illegal discharge that occurred on 240th.
After that incident, the college paid for an FBI consultant to come in and review everything. [Public Safety also] provided a report to the Executive Cabinet with lessons learned, where we did good, where we could improve, and the funding that we need to improve.
A lot of times the improvement is surrounding money and so, um, interesting enough, the FBI review was almost word for word [matching Public Safety’s report].
[Executive Cabinet] even laughed and said, ‘Why do we spend money on this? You already could tell us the same thing.’
That’s not what I’m trying to explain though. He ends his report saying that Highline College responded in a professional and a timely manner, and they should be proud of the response.
I don’t want students to be like, ‘Am I safe here? Does Public Safety have their act together?’
We have been reviewed by the FBI, we do meet with other directors to try to learn from each other.
It’s always great if people let us know, ‘I’m having a hard time finding this information’, so then we can review our website, and make sure that information is available, but we are definitely always working to try to be better.”
For students concerned about their safety on campus, Public Safety can be reached 24/7 at (206) 592-3218.