FAYETTEVILLE (KFSM) – In order to help students know how to handle an active shooter situation on campus, the University of Arkansas created a video to tell students how to react.
For the university, creating a video about how to handle an active shooter situation was a must-do.
"It is very unfortunate that we live in a society where this can take place," said Scott Flanagin, Executive Director of Communications for the University of Arkansas.
In 2014, the university filmed a video which recreated an active shooter situation on campus.
Flanagin was partially in charge of the creation of the film, entitled “UAPD Active Shooter Video – Avoid, Deny, Defend.”
"What we decided to do, was show a real-life scenario in a video, so people would understand how scary this can be,” Flanagin said.
The video was edited, and released at the beginning of the school year.
The video script encourages three actions to take, being ‘avoid, deny, and defend.’
The first step, avoiding, means someone should try and escape the active shooter situation by fleeing.
The second option, denying, would be to try prevent a shooter from gaining access to rooms with people inside.
The final option is to defend.
Flanagin said the denying step encourages those in a shooter situation to fight back.
"Defend yourselves at all costs,” Flanagin said. “It could be your life.”
Flanagin said, as much as he wished the video wouldn't be necessary, he wanted the students and staff at the university to always be prepared.
“It really shows that we really need this kind of video out there for people to understand exactly what to do. When you get in that kind of scenario, your mind can kind of wonder.”
The University said professors have also encouraged students to watch the video.
Many professors even made it a part of the syllabus at the beginning of the school year.