Students gathered outside Chafee Hall on Thursday after reports of a gunman on campus. Listener photo.
By Dan Yorke, WPRO
A STATE OF CONFUSION
It was just that at URI yesterday as students poured out of a classroom building fearing a gun man. Pretty hard to tell through the media and official reports whether there was a legitimate worry. But it does provide a real-time exercise in this kind of emergency response.
It also provides a real-time exercise in journalistic responsibility. The use of social media by the mainstream media has to be as disciplined as what is reported on air or online. For a short time there was a lot of trauma over the worst case worry…exacerbated by the high speed twitter and other feeds.
On the plus side, social media is a real tool for the school administration when it comes to emergency alerts. And the school gets to review the process and work out the kinks.
What is crazy, though, is that URI campus police aren’t armed. A decades-old debate needs to be revisited. Not sure what the politics of this is, but we need to vet the politics and get that force up to speed. It’s a real community in Kingston, and it needs a real police force.
MEANWHILE…THE BASKETBALL WORLD IS A BUZZ
And URI coach Dan Hurley is in the middle of it. With the firing of the head coach at Rutgers (and now the athletic director is out, too) the speculation is that Hurley is the “jersey guy” choice. Maybe. But remember, Rhode Island is really North Jersey, so it feels sort of like home.
ON THE POLITICAL FRONT
The most insulting event this week was our two local congressmen announcing their support for a near three-dollar-per-hour raise in the federal minimum wage. Have Jim Langevin or David Ciciline ever been in a small business, let alone work in one?
IN CONNECTICUT
A sweeping gun control package that does nothing to enhance school security has just been passed. The pressure is immense since Newtown, but this is the first of what will be plenty of swings and misses by Washington, state and local government in response. You want to honor those beautiful little kids? Protect their peers. Period.
THE IDEA THAT SCHOOL SAFETY MEANS MEASURES SHOULD BE SECRET
It’s the dumbest thing we heard this week. It comes in the form of a proposed Rhode Island bill, and it has to be rejected. This is not about exposing the blueprint for safety procedures, it’s about telegraphing that you’re prepared. And without armed security, you’re not.
COVENTRY VOTERS SAID NO
But the solution from the state reps and others is to go ahead and raise the Central Coventry Fire District tax anyway. Isn’t it amazing how disconnected the political leadership can be from its own constituents?
THE RED SOX TAKE TWO OR THREE FROM THE YANKEES
Ahem, it’s only April.
Time for spring clean up this weekend. Enjoy it.
