The upper levels of the Classroom Center will be closed from 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on May 18 to conduct a full-scare active shooter drill.

There will be certain areas around the building that will be restricted to maintain a safe training environment.

“It’s a drill for area law enforcement and not only the [WTAMU Police Department],” Patrol Sergeant Robert Byrd said. “It’s to see what kind of response we would have if we had an active shooter on campus.”

Officers from Randall County, Amarillo Police Department, Canyon Police Department and others will be sending their officers to WT at a certain time.

“Most of the officers in this area have been trained for this kind of thing,” Byrd said. “We want to test that training to see where we are strong, where we are weak and what we need to train for.”

Byrd said that finalized plans have yet to be made.

“We want to let everybody know that this is a drill and it’s not a real life scenario,” Byrd said. “We will have more emails going out, notices around campus and mentions on the radio traffic.”

The drill will be conducted between semesters to try and minimize the impact on students, faculty and staff, Byrd said.

Broadcasting major Kristin Turley works in Advising Services and said that freshman orientation will take place that day and they will be unable to access the Hub.

“We’re getting cut off from accessing that area until the drill is over,” Turley said. “I think it’s pretty cool, but slightly inconvenient.”

She said she is slightly worried about how incoming freshmen will feel since orientation is scheduled for that day.

“We will be informing them about the drill, but I imagine it would be kind of intimidating,” she said. “But I know it’s going to be safely executed and hopefully officers will better handle a school shooting.”

Criminal Justice major Maria Campos said she feels it’s a good idea that UPD is going to do the drill.

“The procedure will help WT in being more prepared like with fire drills,” Campos said.

Campos thinks that this could benefit WT by making others feel safer, knowing that the school security is doing as much as possible to prepare in case of emergencies.

“It helps everyone out because it will help them practice, see drills and other strategies they do,” Campos said.