DENVER-Columbine High School students last week used wireless technology as a lifeline to the world from within the confines of their Littleton, Colo., school while two gunmen terrorized students and faculty in a rampage that left 15 dead and 23 injured.
Stories of students managing to call their parents, the news media and even police from hiding places within the school began to emerge after the shootings. The Denver Rocky Mountain News reported Columbine senior Doug Brace called his mother to say, “I’m OK, but I’m hiding.”
Other students called 911 from their hiding place in the choir room to tell authorities where they were.
One local TV news station aired a recording of a student who called the station from his wireless phone while hiding in a classroom, according to CNN.
“I’m in the classroom, locked doors,” the student named James told the station during a live broadcast. “It’s just really noisy outside. I hear a lot of screaming.”
The station told James to call 911.
When the chaos within the school subsided, the chaos outside the school began. Parents frantically searched for their children, many of whom were trapped in the building for hours after the shooting began. Wireless phones continued to play a huge role, allowing families and friends to reach each other wherever they were.
“These students were fortunate that the use of their phones and pagers were allowed,” said Jay Kitchen, president of the Personal Communications Industry Association. “There are many school districts around the country that have set policies forbidding the carrying and use of wireless devices on campus.
“They are performing a grave disservice to students, parents and teachers alike,” continued Kitchen. “I can only imagine what parents must have been going through when they were unable to receive messages from their children.
“Those parents and students that were able to communicate wirelessly with the outside world during the unfolding tragedy were provided some modicum of reassurance that others did not have.”
“Obviously what happened [at Columbine] is a great tragedy,” said Tom Wheeler, president of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association. “But I think it points out an interesting kind of question, and that is that we send teachers and school administrators out to do their jobs completely isolated from the outside world.”
Wheeler said the CTIA Foundation has provided 3,000 wireless phones to teachers and administrators as part of its ClassLink program. Teachers say security is one of the most important uses for wireless phones in classrooms, according to Wheeler.
“If something happens in a classroom, what’s a teacher to do?” asked Wheeler. “They can either yell or run down the hall.”
Hours after the shootings began, wireless systems in the area were pushed to their limits with emergency workers, news media and families using their wireless phones.
Jonathan Marshall, a spokesman for AirTouch Communications Inc., said the company’s networks in the area experienced call volumes of 10 times normal capacity in the aftermath of the shooting. AirTouch and AT&T Wireless Services Inc. said they had serious call blocking on their analog networks.
“No carrier could possibly have engineered their system to handle these call volumes,” said Richard Abels, a spokesman for AT&T Wireless in Denver.
While call volumes began to subside the night of the shootings, both companies took steps to increase capacity on their networks. Both companies also have made phones available to police and emergency workers.
