Campus Alert Archive
RRCC

A Lockdown Drill's Alert Escapes to Real Students at Red Rocks' Arvada Campus

COothertestmedium confidence
UnfoundedNo evidence of an actual threat was found. The institutional response is documented because the alert communication is identical to what would occur during a real incident.

On the afternoon of Thursday, September 4, 2025, Red Rocks Community College safety officials mistakenly sent an active-threat lockdown alert to students at its Arvada campus that was only supposed to be part of an internal drill. The emailed alert went out at about 12:57 p.m. MDT. The college quickly followed with a correction telling recipients to disregard the first message because it was part of a drill.

Alerts
2
Response
—
Killed
—
Injured
—
Institution
Red Rocks Community College
Community College · CO
~8,000 studentsRRCC Emergency Notification System
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

2 messages in sequence

Some alert texts below are approximate reconstructions from news coverage, not confirmed verbatim transcripts. Reconstructed texts are shown in italic with a dashed border. Verified verbatim texts have a solid border and are marked accordingly.

INITIAL ALERTEmail
Approximate reconstruction169 chars
RRCC EMERGENCY: ACTIVE THREAT on the Arvada campus. RUN. HIDE. FIGHT. Lock or barricade doors, silence phones, and stay away from windows until you receive an all-clear.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

The message reached real students even though it was meant to stay inside a scheduled lockdown drill — a notification-discipline failure rather than a security incident.
Reconstructed wording in the standard Run-Hide-Fight format; 9News confirmed an active-threat alert was sent at 12:57 p.m. but did not publish the verbatim email.
CORRECTIONEmail
Approximate reconstruction201 chars
DISREGARD: The previous active-threat alert was sent in error as part of a lockdown drill on the Arvada campus. There is NO threat. Please disregard the earlier message. We apologize for the confusion.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

The correction is a textbook example of the cost of a mis-sent drill: institutions must immediately broadcast a 'disregard' to undo the panic the first message can cause.
Reconstructed wording; 9News reported a follow-up email indicated the original alert was part of a drill and to disregard it.
Context

Background

Red Rocks Community College operates campuses in Lakewood and Arvada, Colorado. On September 4, 2025, 9News reported that RRCC safety officials accidentally sent an active-threat lockdown alert to students at the Arvada campus during what was supposed to be an internal lockdown drill, with the message going out around 12:57 p.m. MDT. The college sent a follow-up email clarifying the alert was part of a drill and asking students to disregard it. The episode highlights a recurring risk in campus emergency-notification programs: test and drill messages that escape into live distribution lists. RRCC's own Emergency Notification System and campus police pages describe the alerting infrastructure that was misused here. The college had previously closed all campuses over an August 2022 bomb threat later deemed a hoax.
Analysis

Key Findings

A scheduled lockdown drill's alert reached live student inboxes, forcing the college to issue a rapid 'disregard' correction
The incident is a notification-process failure, not a security threat — useful for studying how drill traffic should be segregated from live alert channels
Rapid correction within minutes limited the spread of unnecessary alarm, illustrating the importance of a pre-drafted retraction template
Outcome
There was no real threat. The college sent a follow-up message clarifying the alert was an accidental product of a lockdown drill and asking students to disregard it.
Provenance

Sources

  1. News
    Red Rocks Community College mistakenly sends lockdown alert during drill at Arvada campus - 9News
    9news.com
  2. Official
    Emergency Notification System (ENS) - Red Rocks Community College
    rrcc.edu
  3. News
    Several Colorado community college campuses closed due to threat, later found to be hoax - Denver7
    denver7.com
Tags
false-alarmdrillnotification-errorcoloradocommunity-collegelockdownUnfounded
Added May 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion