First Posted: 11/14/2007
Keystone College will host a unique crisis response drill on Monday, Nov. 19 on the La Plume campus.
The campus wide drill will get underway at approximately 9 a.m. and conclude around 1 p.m. The drill will bring together the Keystone community with members of law enforcement, emergency response, mental health, behavioral health and disaster planning organizations from Lackawanna and Wyoming Counties, as well as those from other parts of Northeastern Pennsylvania. Tyler Memorial Hospital in Tunkhannock will be a key participant in the exercise. The East Central Pennsylvania Counter Terrorism Task Force chaired by Arthur Kaplan (CEM), is providing the majority of the funding for the exercise.
Since the tragic events at Virginia Tech University last spring, colleges and universities across the nation are taking significant steps to prepare for campus violence and other crisis situations. The November crisis response drill at Keystone will be the first wide-scale emergency planning event on any local campus. The purpose of this emergency response drill will be to help all involved test their ability for a real crisis situation should it occur on campus. Members of the Keystone campus community and local residents in the Factoryville, La Plume and Dalton areas should not be alarmed when several emergency response vehicles enter campus as part of the drill. All activities will be governed by a health and safety plan and a debriefing evaluation will occurs at the conclusion of the exercise.