Lone Star College confirms it did activate its emergency alert system Tuesday when gunfire rang at on campus. At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, one administrator claims the texts were sent out well before 12:50pm. But many students we spoke with say there were some serious delays receiving it.
As students returned to Lone Star College North Harris campus Wednesday, some said it was an emergency alert text the college sent out about the campus shooting that's causing a lot of questions. One student says their alert was time stamped for 12:48pm, but the recipient claims it didn't come through until 1:04pm.
"A lot of the teachers weren't getting the alerts until basically 30 minutes or more that it had happened. They had a lot of confusion," student Cassandra Garcia said.
She ran for cover after hearing the gunshots on campus and is among students concerned about the timeliness of receiving the alerts.
Harris County Sheriff's Office deputies were called out to the shooting at 12:29pm and arrived on campus four minutes later. Another student named Lerika says she got the alert on her phone long after the campus went into lockdown.
"I got it at 12:51," Lerika said.
Other students are also complaining about delays receiving the text alert. One student named Darnisha left a message on our Eyewitness News Facebook page saying, "I didn't receive my text alert of the shooting from Lonestar (sic) until 1:15pm, long after the shooting happened!!! Lonestar need to improve this!!!"
Another student named Joann wrote, "to everyone who thinks there was no student notification: I dont know what time this all went down, but i received an emergency email from LSC at 1:18pm."
Garcia told us, "I think there needs to be a lot more organization from how disorganized things were. Some teachers were letting students out, and a lot of them had to go to other buildings; teachers were telling them to come in and they had to be into a locked safe room."
Administrators tell us they are reviewing Tuesday's emergency alert procedures, but say they don't believe as much time lapsed as students have been reporting.
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