Lone Star College's alert system questioned post shooting

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- In emergency situations like these, technology is a central component to keeping people safe. But some Lone Start College students are concerned about how the college alerted them of the shooting.

With smart phones, we all expect instant notifications. We went back and gathered emails, text messages and social media comments, and though the college hasn't yet weighed in on our timeline, it appears there was nothing instant about it.

From the time of the shooting, around 12:19, to the time of the first campus-wide alert email at 12:47, 38 minutes had passed. Five minutes later, there was another email. About the same time, there were texts.

Chancellor Dr. Richard Carpenter says they worked hard to alert everyone.

"We sent the text blasts to all of our students, emails, speakers. Also, we have multiple forms by which we communicate," Carpenter said.

But some are questioning whether it worked. We saw this post on Facebook: "I didn't receive my text alert of the shooting from Lone Star until 1:15pm, long after the shooting happened!!! Lone Star needs to improve this!!!"

Another person says she received an emergency email from Lone Star College at 1:18pm. That's almost an hour after the shooting.

Students say there are so-called dead zones on campus.

"When you go in the cafeteria, you get no service. Parts of the school are dead zones or you don't really get 4G in there," one student told us.

The chancellor encourages all to be connected.

"A student can opt out if they don't want to receive emails from us or if they don't use the services or if they don't want to receive a text from us," Carpenter said.

Of course, official do not encourage opting out of alerts.

In an email sent to Eyewitness News on Tuesday night, the college said it proud of the orderly and professional way everyone responded and that they followed proper protocol in alerting students.
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local, jessica willey

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