Eight months after a gunman entered Montreal's Dawson College, fatally shooting Anastasia DeSousa and injuring 20 others, school officials have unveiled heightened security plans for the fall.
The measures focus on improving communication with students and staff during an emergency.
"In a lot of ways we need to communicate rapidly," said school spokesperson Drago Kresevic.
In the most recent shooting in North America -- the Virginia Tech massacre that killed 33 people including the gunman -- school officials were criticized for a perceived slow response in alerting those on campus.
Those caught up in the Dawson College violence said cellphones were useless as students tried to contact family and friends. And there was little idea of what was happening.
"For someone who was trapped in there we had no idea," said student Katherine Mandilaras, who was shot by the gunman.
"First we heard there were three other shooters, so four in total. We didn't know, and we didn't know whether police had it under control.
"I couldn't reach my family, so I didn't know if my family knew."
Dawson officials say they will now have more antennas to bring better cellphone coverage to the area.
And classrooms will have a two-way intercom system so students, faculty and staff can be alerted to any emergency.
"We can send the messages into the classrooms and at the same time have two-way communication," said Kresevic.
Officials will also have video surveillance and the ability to control each of the college's 30 entrances, by locking the doors electronically.
"They'll have either magnetic access or card access controls so that we can close them, and when they are closed we can detect they've been opened," said Kresevic.
With a report by CTV Montreal's Tania Krywiak
