Pitt students, parents want answers after response to hoax active shooter calls
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Pitt students say they're still not satisfied and want to keep the conversation going after a hoax active shooter call and failure of the emergency notification system on Monday night.
"We deserve it as students. We go to the University of Pittsburgh to get an education, not to flee for our lives from Hillman," Danielle Floyd said.
The criticism is extending well beyond campus. Pitt parents are sounding off on social media saying this is not the security response they were expecting or promised during their campus tours.
"Frankly, I'm paying $32,000 a year to put my daughter through college, and I expect a modicum of safety," said Pitt parent Ron Iller.
Iller's phone rang Monday night and his terrified daughter was on the other end talking about an active shooter at the library. He sat in Philly for more than an hour with no answers.
"I can't get in the car -- you know, I'm 4 1/2 hours away. I'm trusting you to take care of my kid and then you fail. And it's unacceptable," he said.
Pitt's chief of police admitted Tuesday that he made a mistake hesitating to send an emergency alert until the department gathered more details and said the university's now looking into a reported failure of the system.
Illner doesn't have much sympathy.
"If there's a balance that shows up on my kid's Pitt Pay account -- it's like they got AI running it -- it sends out these alerts. But they can't hit an ENS notification," he said.
Chancellor Patrick Gallagher told the community the university already began a "major review of the procedures, policies, and tools" saying it will reassess the insufficient emergency notification system and revisit its standard for sharing information, saying speed matters.
Danielle Floyd said Pitt's student government board wants to see change fast. It wants an apology and answers as to why the officer fired shots and why there was a lapse of time.
"We're really going to be asking the university those questions during that town hall and just holding them accountable," Floyd said.
Another thing the student government board says it wants of the university is to not discipline any students that protest the university's response -- they even have an event scheduled for later this week. Students will lay on the lawn for the amount of time they say it took for the university to send a notification to students.
