Emergencies can catch you off guard, and without advance mental work to prepare, your untrained, automatic response might not serve you well. Learning and understanding expert recommendations on how to respond can help you react in the moment.

In the event of an active shooter or other violence, you should: RUN. HIDE. FIGHT. That means you should:

• RUN if you are able. Get away from the shooter or assailant, by whatever means you can. Leave your belongings, and call 911 when you are in a safe location.
• If you can’t run away safely, HIDE. Get out of the assailant’s view and stay very quiet. Lock and block the doors, close the blinds, turn off the lights and silence your phone. Stay hidden until you receive an all clear from law enforcement.
• FIGHT as a last resort. Commit to your actions and act as aggressively as possible against the assailant, using makeshift weapons like chairs, books, fire extinguishers or scissors. Recruit others to ambush the assailant all at once, in an attempt to overwhelm and distract them.

In an emergency, LCC Police and our local first responder partners will be on site as soon as possible; however, in the critical first moments of an emergency, you are responsible for your initial safety. Episodes of active violence often last only minutes, and your immediate response could be critical to your survival. Understanding recommended emergency actions is the first step to keeping yourself safe.

Run, hide, fight is the recommended response of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and ready.gov. Keep it in mind not only when you are in class, but in any public space. Learn more from this video.

The LCC Police Department is also offering training sessions to help you stay safe during an active shooter situation. It will cover what LCC does to prevent an act of violence, how law enforcement responds to active violence, actions you can take in an active shooter situation at the college or elsewhere, what not to do in a crisis, and how to recognize suspicious behaviors and patterns. All students are encouraged to attend one of the sessions throughout 2023. You can check the schedule at lcc.edu/police.

If you have any questions, please contact LCC Emergency Manager Carol Wolfinger at wolfinc1@star.lcc.edu.