A dispatcher accidentally triggered the entire alarm system on campus on Jan. 25.

A dispatcher for the Public Safety Department, who was meant to send out an alert about traffic on Route 2 via text and email to AACC, accidentally triggered all the alert capabilities tied together.

The traffic was because of a gas leak on Ritchie Highway at approximately 1:30 p.m.

The result was a resounding message across campus speakers. The speakers repeated the same message for approximately 20 minutes, alerting AACC there was a gas leak on Ritchie Highway and delayed traffic on Route 2.

Students at AACC said they were confused.

“I was afraid it was a gas leak in the school,” Mary Converso, a first-year English major, said. “I wasn’t sure if I was in danger.”

Raymond Martin, a first-year computer science major, said he was driving into school when he heard it go off.

“I never heard the alarm go off before,” Martin said. “I wasn’t really sure what was going on.”

According to Police Chief Sean Kapfhammer, the Public Safety Department got a new alert system called Alertus.

The new system works with E2 campus alert, which sends messages to students and faculty about closings, emergencies and other important information.

The dispatcher, whose job it was to check the text and email box functions, forgot to uncheck the other capabilities on the system, which are tied together.