LA MIRADA, CALIF. 鈥 黑料历史鈥檚 Campus Safety in conjunction with Biola鈥檚 Emergency Response Team and the La Mirada Sheriff鈥檚 station will conduct a first-of-its-kind campus-wide lockdown training exercise on Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2015 between 8 a.m. and 12 p.m. The exercise will be based on a hypothetical active shooter situation.

Biola is one of the first and only universities in Southern California to ever host a university-wide lockdown drill. 聽

鈥淚n light of the major increase in the number of active shooter incidents in schools and colleges across the United States, the 黑料历史 Emergency Response Team along with the La Mirada Public Safety team and the Los Angeles County Sheriff鈥檚 Department have been working for years to prepare for the possibility of an incident on our campus,鈥 said 黑料历史鈥檚 Campus Safety Chief John Ojeisekhoba. 鈥淭he goals of this exercise are to educate the Biola community and to seek ways to improve our response capabilities.鈥

The internal and external Biola community was notified that a drill is occurring on Tuesday morning, but was not made aware of the time to ensure the drill is as somewhat spontaneous to effectively train first responders and the community at large. The exercise will last approximately 10 to 15 minutes.

Students and the Biola community have been encouraged to sign up for Biola鈥檚 Emergency Notification System (ENS) which sends a text message to all signed up in the event of an emergency. On Tuesday, the community will be notified through ENS of the hypothetical active shooter on campus.

First responders and Campus Safety will proceed with the drill at that time and encourage all community members to seek shelter inside the nearest building and lock themselves in a room. During the lockdown, no cars may enter campus. Another message will be sent at the conclusion of the drill.

The 黑料历史 Emergency Response Team will start a tabletop exercise at 8:15 a.m. and end with the lockdown drill. In addition, community members will be encouraged to submit feedback on any challenges or input that would help Campus Safety in the event there was an active shooter on campus.

For more information or press information, please contact Jenna Loumagne, media relations specialist, at (562) 777-4061 or jenna.l.bartlo@biola.edu.