Kudos for St. John’s

We congratulate St. John’s University for having the foresight to put in place a text-messaging system to alert the faculty and student body about dangerous situations.
We wrote exclusively about a similar text alert system being instituted at City University of New York’s Queens College campus this semester too.
Governor Eliot Spitzer, in his statement addressing last week’s capture of a gunman, Omesh Hiraman, on campus, said, “The alert system notified students and staff of impending danger in a timely and effective manner. I similarly applaud the faculty, staff and students of St. John’s who heeded the warning and responded in a responsible and orderly fashion, allowing law enforcement the time to handle the incident.”
It was a chilling reminder of the Virginia Tech tragedy.
Fortunately, nobody was hurt in this breach of security when Hiraman, 22, and a freshman, brought a loaded rifle in a black plastic garbage bag onto campus while wearing a George Bush Halloween-style mask. However, through the text mail alerts issued by the University, many on campus were able to stay in touch during the several hours the incident took to play out.
We were impressed by the television images of the students - under lock down - armed with the knowledge of the gunman, barricading the doors of the room in which they were told to “stay put” by text message.
While only 10 percent or so of the students on St. John’s campus had signed up for the alert system prior to the Wednesday, September 26 scare, we are sure the enrollment will go up exponentially henceforth.
Cell phones are a powerful weapon in the war against crime and terrorism. Now more than ever we call on Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein to change their position on barring the city’s middle and high school students from bringing their cellphones into school with them.
Television broadcast images of concerned parents who had rushed to the St. John’s campus to wait out the lock down until their sons and daughters would be free to come home. The parents were worried but every sound bite proved that they were happy and relieved because at least they knew that the gunman, Hiraman, was in custody and that their children were safe on campus or outside the grounds.
There is no price one can put on those feelings of being connected - even if it is just by cell phone - to your loved ones in times of an emergency. That is all the City Council tried to accomplish with their cell phone bill.
Moreover, our local politicians should now explore the same kind of text message alert system for use in the city schools too. Must we wait for a Virginia Tech-style tragedy to happen in our public schools before the Mayor and Chancellor do the right thing? We hope not. Safety must be put first before ego!