McGill University defends coaching students, staff on active shooter scenario

McGill University is standing by its decision to coach faculty, staff and students on what to do if an active shooter is on campus.

McGill released a 12-minute video, in collaboration with the University of Alberta, which teachers have been asked to show their students.

The video shows an armed gunman prowling through a school, and suggestssteps people should take to protect themselves.

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"There is no easy way to do it but as opposed to Dawson, McGill, thank God, has not gone through such an event," Ollivier Dyens, McGill's deputy provost of student life and learning, told CBC Montreal's Daybreak.

"We want to make sure people are aware of these things."

The video begins with a warning aboutits content, andDyenssaid that students are allowed to leave the class if they need to.

But the university's decision to screen it in classroomshasgarnered both criticism and supporton campus.

"I think it's mostly going to scare students that it could happen and make them feel unsafe," saidHarjas Mann, a second-year engineering student.

"I think it shows the gravity of the situation because it's a scary thing and I think the video does a fine job of portraying how serious it is,"Peggy Giordano, a political science student,said.

"It should be startling to people, it should be troubling and I think that's what this video is trying to convey."

'They have to be able to know what to do'

The video, shown in schools across Canada,focuses predominantly on three actions:get out, hide andif there is no other optionfight.

Students can been seen screaming and running as the sounds of gunfire ring through the halls. Some hide under desks whileothers make it out of the building with tears streaming down their faces.

One classroom is left with no choice but to fight the suspect, who enters with a rifle in hand.

"We want faculty to be aware of this because if this happens students will turn to their faculty to guide them through this,"Dyens said. "And they have to be able to know what to do."

Dawson not following suit

The video is being screened inclassrooms across campus at McGill asDawson College prepares to mark the 10th anniversary of the shooting that killed 18-year-old Anastasia De Sousa and wounded 19 others on Sept. 13, 2006.

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The downtown Montreal CEGEPsays it has taken steps to enhance security in the years that followed, but won't be following McGill'slead.

"I confess I have not seen that video and I don't think I can," Donna Varrica, the head of communications at Dawson College, told CBC Montreal's Daybreak. She was the school's spokesperson at the time of the shooting.

"There are trigger warnings all the timefor those of us who lived through it. A certain smell, a sound," she said.

Since the shooting, Dawson has changed its camera surveillance system and implemented dead-boltlocks on the doors,but Varrica said the school doesn'tuse simulation videos or exercises since it hits too close to what really happened.

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"We also thought it was important to not create a climate of fear," she said.