During the first day of the 2018 fall semester, there was a mistaken active shooter threat. A campus-wide alert was released on campus, with emergency sirens and Gold Alerts. The campus ensued into chaos.
As far as I knew at the time, there was no public plan for what to do in case an active shooter came to our campus. I didn’t know what to do, and from hearing friends’ experiences, many of the professors didn’t either. I heard from several other students that some professors did not take the threat seriously and some continued teaching.
I was alone in my dorm room when the sirens started going off, and I remember switching back and forth between being terrified, thinking it wasn’t actually real and then reminding myself that no one actually thinks this can ever happen to them until it does.
Luckily for everyone involved, there was not an actual active shooter, but I think it was a major wake-up call for all of ETSU.
Earlier this semester, ETSU Public Safety sent out a video to every student on active shooter preparation, giving detailed scenarios of what to do if there is an active shooter depending on your location.
It’s sad and disturbing that any school feels the need to circulate a video like this to their students, but in our current reality, I am glad ETSU Public Safety decided to make this video.
I’m a firm believer that our gun laws and culture need to change, but I also think it’s important to protect ourselves in our current culture. I found the video valuable, because even though mass shootings have been a regular occurrence since my early teenage years, no one has ever specifically told me what I should do if I was actually in that position. The video made me feel a little more prepared for this type of scenario, even though I hope our campus is never in that situation again.
As the number of mass shootings rise in our nation, I think every campus needs to have a clear plan and accessible resources for everyone. I hope in the future if a similar occurrence happens, students and faculty will be more prepared and take the situation more seriously.
