University of Illinois Sends ‘Active Shooter’ Campus Alert By Mistake

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We understand the need to be prepared, but this is just unfortunate.

In an error that might just cost someone a job, the campus police at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign accidentally dispatched an alert to students Thursday morning, warning them that there was an active shooter on campus — only thing is, there wasn’t. Turns out that someone was updating an emergency-message template that’s used in the event that such a crime is taking place, and the employee hit send instead of save. Two four-letter words starting with the letter “s.” Simple mistake, right?’

Tell that to the confused and frightened students who saw the alert before it was retracted 10 minutes later. Some may have been tipped off by the generic nature of the message, which read, “Active shooter at BUILDING NAME/INTERSECTION. Escape area if safe to do so or shield/secure your location.” There was no mass hysteria, but that might also be because U of I students are on spring break this week.

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