COLUMBUS, Ohio – Two recent off-campus shootings have prompted some Ohio State University (OSU) students and their families to call for the school to expand the perimeter that determines when emergency notifications are issued.
On Sunday, OSU men’s soccer team player Nathan Demian was shot a few blocks from campus when drivers of two vehicles began shooting at each other, reports Fox28. Demian was an innocent bystander caught in the crossfire. Although he is expected to survive his injuries, he is currently being treated at a local hospital.
The other off-campus shooting happened December 5. No one was injured.
Buckeye Alerts Weren’t Sent Because Incidents Happened Off Campus
Neither incident warranted the sending of a Buckeye Alert because they didn’t happen on campus. Ohio State public safety officials say they issue an emergency notification when the campus community must take immediate action, such as when there is an active assailant, a gas leak, explosion, or severe weather.
“Off-campus incidents will not result in a Buckeye Alert unless an issue is heading toward or posing a threat to the campus,” OSU Division of Public Safety’s Cassandra Shaffer said in a safety notice video.
Although an alert wasn’t issued after each of the shootings, OSU Police did post a notice on social media about the incident involving Demian.
Related Article: Timely Warning vs. Emergency Notification: What’s the Big Difference?
Some students and their parents want OSU’s Buckeye Alert policy to change to include notifications about incidents that happen off campus.
When ABC6 asked OSU officials if the emergency notification boundaries could be expanded, a spokesperson said the school was following the Clery Act.
“Boundaries or geography for Buckeye Alerts and Public Safety Notices are dictated by the federal Clery Act timely warning policy and include Clery Act defined crimes that occur on Clery reportable property, often thought of as campus,” a spokesperson for OSU said in a statement.
For students and other members of the community who want to obtain real-time information about off-campus incidents, the OSU spokesperson recommended the Citizen app due to those areas being in the jurisdictions of other law enforcement agencies.
The community can no longer refer to a local crime map to track incidents that happen off campus due to a ransomware attack that happened earlier this year.
