On Feb. 28, campus was filled with rumors of a planned school shooting from a message written in a bathroom stating there would be one at 5 p.m. Mass texts were sent between students on campus as others tweeted and begged their friends to leave school and get somewhere safe.
One of the first people to see the message claims that she notified campus police at 1 p.m. Yet campus police did not send out a message until hours later at 3:45 p.m.
Even then, SJSUPD only mentioned graffiti on campus and not the nature of the message. There was no plea for students to avoid campus and seek shelter. Sure, they told student to report suspicious activity, but from the text message most students would think that they had to look out for people with spray paint cans, not firearms.
Ten minutes later, an email was sent out alerting students of the real threat of a planned shooting. But in the days of push notifications, the email was left unread by many. If you just received a message about graffiti, would you care enough to open an email containing an update on vandalism.
I was inside the Industrial Studies building opening up a campus map on my phone trying to determine how far away my building was from Dudley Moorhead Hall. I spent those class hours looking up my building’s floor plan to determine how close my classroom was to an entrance. If the shooter entered my building, how long until they reach me? How many desks and chairs could we push against the two doors?
My friends spent their time trying to reason with me to leave campus, but by then it was too close to 5 p.m. I debated whether I wanted to leave and walk outside where there would not be much to cover me if open fire occurred, or if I wanted to stay inside where I would be a sitting duck. At least there would be walls.
In the time that passed, campus police never sent out a message calming the fears of students after they determined the threat was not credible. Instead, official statements were given to journalists from KTVU and other news outlets. I am willing to bet money that majority of the students, who were scared for their lives, do not follow these journalists on Twitter. Aside from those in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications who are more likely to follow these sources, the rest of the student body was left to look to each other for updates.
Professors sent out messages on Canvas, email and text message to their rosters telling students to leave campus and forget about their evening classes. Sport team coaches canceled practices, while clubs and organizations canceled their meetings. Word circulated that some buildings like Dwight Bentel Hall had been evacuated.
Meanwhile, school officials remained silent while panic spread. Legitimate panic just weeks after the Parkland shooting. Hours from when a threatening tweet put Alum Rock elementary school on alert.
You can not tell me that we were not told the full truth of the threat to help prevent panic. That the legitimacy needed to be checked first, or that pre-planned attacks with warning messages never become a reality. Remember when the Parkland shooter commented on a YouTube video months before the shooting?
This is the second time in my college career that I have been involved in an active shooter threat on campus.
The first time was at Mission College in Santa Clara when a student called police alerting them that they saw someone running on campus with an assault rifle. It took one phone call for them to place the entire campus on lockdown, emergency messages dispersed and law enforcement to come. Squads of cop cars, armored vehicles and helicopters came to campus. Instructors immediately closed all doors, shut all the blinds, turned lights off and told us to move tables against the doors. I sat in my classroom, all of us on the floor in silence.
We waited without knowing what was going on outside. My parents called me and I all could do was whisper, “I can’t talk right now, I need to stay quiet. I love you, bye.”
The weapon turned out to be a fake prop with the bright tip removed. But when you compare Mission College’s response to the way SJSU regarded its students, I am left heartbroken. My university that I love, that makes me proud to be a Spartan, had no love or concern for me.
Our university president, Dr. Mary A Papazian, sent out an official statement the next day. She disappointed me in every way. The university can say that the value the safety of students, but the point is that many of the students felt that their safety was not valued.
I am tired of checking the news these days. At first, it was from the nightmare of an election, the battle over immigrant rights, the war over women’s reproductive rights, healthcare, student debt, wage inequality, environmental protection…everything. And now mass shootings threaten our safety on school grounds. Not just college students, but elementary kids.
The fact that I could walk my nieces to school in the morning and not feel like they are safe is a worry that I do not want to have. I want to wonder what books they are reading, or the science projects they are doing. Not wonder if they will come home that day.
For this and many more reasons, I am all too mad. When March 24 comes, I will march for our lives. For mine and for yours.