Faulkner University was put into lockdown earlier today after reports of an active shooter on campus were disseminated through the University’s emergency information system.
The situation has now been resolved.
According to the Montgomery Policy Department, a custodial employee was shot by her estranged husband after a physical altercation on the campus. She is currently in critical condition. The shooter was taken into custody.
To complicate matters, a Hoover-area middle school was also sent into lockdown after Faulkner’s emergency message was misinterpreted by a parent of one of their students.
At 12:29 this afternoon, Yellowhammer News received an email from a parent of a student at Simmons Middle School in Hoover claiming they had received a text that there was an active shooter situation taking place at the middle school.
Yellowhammer immediately called the school and spoke to a member of the school’s administration, who said they had received no reports of a problem on campus.
In an effort to take every step to ensure the safety of the students, the administration and the school’s resource officer made the decision to put the school into lockdown.
As it turns out, the parent is also an adjunct professor at Faulkner University. He had received an emergency text through his Blackberry from a sender whose address started with “SMS.” He took “SMS” to be an abbreviation for Simmons Middle School, when it was actually the abbreviation for “short message service,” more commonly known as a text message, used by Blackberry’s emergency system.
Faulkner University had not included the college’s name in the emergency warning, since it was only being sent to Faulkner students and employees.
Follow Cliff on Twitter @Cliff_Sims
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