MIT apologizes for erroneous ‘active shooter on campus’ alert
MIT apologized Tuesday afternoon for an erreoneous alert of an active shooter on campus sent via email and social media Sunday.
The alert, which was soon retracted, followed a non-life-threatening shooting on the edge of the MIT campus at the intersection of Main and Portland streets in Cambridge.
In an email sent to MIT community Tuesday, the school’s executive vice president and treasurer, Israel Ruiz, apologized for the error.
We err on the side of safety and aim to provide timely notifications to our community of violent crimes occurring within the MIT campus and its surrounding areas. On Sunday, MIT sent a timely alert to members of the MIT community through the MIT Alert system informing them of the shooting and asking them to evacuate the area.
Due to human error, members of the MIT community also received redundant and conflicting messages saying that there was an active shooter on campus. The error was caused by an accidental engagement of pre-scripted language we have prepared for a specific contingency: a time when we believe that someone is on our campus and shooting. At no time on Sunday did we believe there to be an active shooter posing a threat to any member of the MIT community.
MIT Police’s original tweet, which was not deleted, was retweeted more than 1,400 times.
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Ruiz said the university has taken steps to prevent such mistakes in the future.
“On behalf of all of those responsible for managing and executing the MIT Alert system, I apologize for the confusion and distress that our messages caused,’’ he said. “I am personally and deeply committed to doing everything possible to ensure the safety of our community.’’
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