AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - While investigations into false reports of gunfire at universities across the country continue, our local colleges must treat every threat like it’s the real thing.

While each school in our area has its own plans in case of emergencies, all have one goal in mind–to keep students and staff safe.

USCA, Augusta Tech, Augusta University and Aiken Tech say they all have training in place and have security that patrols their campuses daily.

All of them also have ways for students to send or receive alerts in case of a threat.

Local law enforcement, campus staff and security and even the students train and prepare for what to do in an emergency, but unfortunately, preparing for the worst is something students tell us they’ve had to do growing up in our world

“So the first thing was, of course, like it always is, oh, no, not again, and so and then in relatively short order, thank goodness, thank God it was a false alarm,” said John Ryan, Augusta University emergency manager.

But not every alarm is false.

“It’s definitely a little scary to hear all this stuff on social media and everything is having other schools, but I think it’s just important that we all just do our part, keeping our environment safe,” said Harith Dhinakara and Pradyun Pulipaka, Augusta University freshmen.

So our local schools are doing their part. This year, the Richmond County school district added metal detectors to some schools, and AU recently added 18 more emergency phones and redid 20 of them with more up-to-date technology and more ways to get non-emergent help.

“I’m on another part of campus and there’s probably like five of those around when I walk out of my dorm,” said Foster Duquette and Mia Pemberton, Augusta University freshmen. “It’s really nice and helpful and just right there, if anything is happening.”

They also have an emergency management team doing what they can to prepare for anything that could happen, while also teaming up with local law enforcement and other agencies to form Strong Augusta, keeping campuses and the community safer

“Discussion-based exercises are usually where you start,” said Ryan. “It’s around a table where everybody just has a scenario that’s realistic and plausible and agrees that it’s realistic and plausible that we’re not going to fight the scenario as they say, and if this happened here, if the river flooded, if the locusts came, if the meteors shower, whatever, what would we do? We have a plan for that, we’ve been trained on it, educated on it, now let’s see how, and so we talk our way through that.”

“It’s just about like being conscious of what’s around you and being responsible, you know. Holding each other responsible and accountable,” said Dhinakaran and Pulipaka.

Augusta Tech told News 12 in a statement, it uses the ALICE system.

The safety and well-being of our students, faculty, staff, and visitors is our highest priority, and we train regularly to respond to a variety of emergency situations, including the threat of a violent intruder.

Our institution follows the nationally recognized ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate) protocol. This framework emphasizes flexible, proactive strategies to increase survivability during violent intruder events:

In addition, our campus police conduct regular training exercises with faculty and staff to ensure readiness. We work closely with local law enforcement partners to coordinate response and communication in the event of an actual incident.

Aiken Technical College said in a statement that they have implemented several measure for campus safety.

Aiken Technical College has implemented several measures to provide as safe an environment as possible for our campus community.

One of those measures is ensuring that our security team are visible, accessible, and responsive. They patrol our campus throughout the day, so they get to know our students and employees and vice versa. This availability provides opportunities for the security team to discuss and address any concerns in a timely manner. Tips and concerns can be shared at any time with our security team.

Other measures in place include emergency call boxes conveniently located throughout campus, regular emergency preparedness drills, and training for employees on what to do in case of an emergency. Aiken Tech also has a campus alert system in place, so in the unfortunate case we need to activate it, students and employees will receive phone calls, texts, emails, and desktop alerts (for computers on the campus network).

The University of South Carolina Aiken also has several safety points put in place, including annual training.

USCA Safety and Communication Protocols

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