Humber’s response to nearby shooting too slow: students
Humber College left many in the dark by responding too slowly to reports of a fatal shooting near its North campus, students say.
Toronto Police responded to reports of a shooting in the Humber College Boulevard and Highway 27 area shortly before 8 p.m. last Tuesday, Nov. 17. One man was pronounced dead at the scene. Further media reports clarified that the shooting took place on Alba Place, approximately 350m from campus. Humber College did not publicly respond to the incident until three hours later when a tweet was posted stating the shooting was an “off-campus incident” and was “no immediate threat to the campus community.”
Jason Leyser, a student at Humber College, said he was working on a project in a computer lab while the shooting was taking place. He said there was no reaction inside the school at any time while he was there. “My roommate texted me, that’s the only way I found out,” said Leyser. “There was no announcement at school.”
Robert Kilfoyle, director of public safety and emergency management at Humber, said the school did not respond immediately due to a lack of information. “We didn’t know right away, it took us some time to get verification and assessment from the police,” said Kilfoyle. He added that Humber did not want to “cry wolf.”
“If there is an actual emergency, that is when we want to send out our communications,” said Kilfoyle.
A Humber student who wished to remain anonymous said he was surprised the college did not enter a lockdown. “I don’t understand why the school didn’t go into lockdown when the news reported about the situation,” said the student. “I did not see any precautions evident at the time.”
Kilfoyle said Toronto Police told Humber College that a lockdown was not required. “The criteria for a lockdown is when the campus and/or community is at direct threat of deadly violence. This can include weapons on campus, threats of extreme violence etc.,” said Kilfoyle. He added that police have procedures in place for any situation involving the school. “If there is an incident occurring near the campus that requires the college to take specific action, they communicate with us and send officers to the campus. They didn’t in this case,” said Kilfoyle.
Humber student Rayanne Bradford said she found out about the shooting when a friend called her after seeing it on the news. Bradford said she asked a Humber employee about the incident and was told, “I guess you’re not familiar with this area, this stuff happens here all the time.” She also said that a security guard told her “Toronto is a really bad area, it’s getting worse and you’re not safe here.”
In response to student concerns about the lack of immediate response by the school, Kilfoyle said, “It’s an interesting perspective. We didn’t feel it necessary to broadcast that out there. We don’t manage what happens in the community. If there was any risk to students and faculty on property then we absolutely would have communicated.”
Kilfoyle said he feels the media messaging about the shooting may have been excessive. “It was making things sound a little scarier or worse than it was,” said Kilfoyle. He also said that the tweet posted in response to the shooting was prompted by parents calling in and asking about the situation. “Our intent was to try and counter the media reports, particularly when we saw the CP24 alert that said they believed there was another crime scene at Humber College,” said Kilfoyle.
The University of Guelph-Humber, also located on the North campus, did not respond to the shooting via Twitter, but Kilfoyle says the tweets sent out by Humber were intended for both schools.
Full details concerning Humber’s public safety systems can be found on the Humber College website.
About the Author
Drew Yorke-Slader Drew is a journalism student at the University of Guelph-Humber and is currently capturing the hip hop scene in Toronto. Drew is a freelance photojournalist and concert photographer.
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