Reaction to NIU campus shooting

In My Humble Opinion
1

Yesterday there was a shooting at NIU, a college about an hour west of Chicago. Like many people in the area, I had relatives and acquaintances who attended NIU - all of whom are fortunately fine.

As I was reading the articles this morning, tho, I began thinking about how I would have responded if I were closer to the situation, as well as how the school - or other schools - should respond.

The thing that made me start thinking was reading of many students leaving campus for their homes. One article made it sound as though there was quite a bit of traffic trying to leave the dorms quickly. Which personally struck me as a little odd. I mean, at least in retrospect, it seems as tho pretty quickly it was clear that the situation had ended. I was thinking that if it had happened at my kid’s school, I’d definitely want to hear from her as soon as possible, but I didn’t really think I would be suggesting she come home. Not saying it is wrong for anyone to think or do otherwise - just hoping folks would explain their emotions/responses.

The school has closed down all of its locations for the indefinite future. Again, I realize I tend to be somewhat heartless, and I don’t want to minimize anyone’s need to grieve, but I find myself wondering whether a better response to such a tragedy is a resolution to resume near-normal function as quickly as possible.

Like I said, I tend to be on the not-terribly compassionate/emotional end of the spectrum, so I would appreciate input from others. But it often strikes me as tho they cast the grief-net more broadly than it needs to be in such situations. I often find myself wondering if people want to take part in the grieving process for reasons other than (or in addition to) that they are legitimately distraught.

Finally, without turning this into a gun control debate, what, if anything, can and should colleges do to prevent such things in the future? I’m drawing a blank myself.

I’m really not trying to offend anyone with this thread. And if anyone feels the need to call me a heartless jerk or worse, go right ahead. But what I’m really trying to do is get a clearer picture of how differently people respond to a situation such as this and why.

Not sure if this is the best place to post this thread - please move wherever appropriate.

2

I doubt that most of the ones that left feared for their own lives after it was over. They were probably in some degree of shock and wanted to be free of the reminders and place association for a while not to mention spend time with their families when they see how fast these things can happen. It seems reasonable to me as is staying to spend time with friends at school. I could see myself reacting either way. I have a few very bad place associations, and not only would I want to minimize time there, I wouldn’t want to visit at all.

3

Won’t most students seize any excuse at all to take the day off?

Sailboat

4

I don’t know what colleges could do by way of prevention. They tend to be sprawled-out places, lots of buildings, most people not on any kind of 9-5 schedule, people needing access to multiple buildings at all hours, a lot of coming and going, all kinds of foot & bike traffic.

5

I was involved in a school shooting and was in class the next morning. It hadn’t really occurred to me that there was a reason to take off. I am not very empathetic though.

6

NIU has been locked down a few times already in the past 6 weeks or so because of repeated threats of a shooting. (The last I heard was this this shooting had nothing to do with the graffiti posted around campus.) At this point the students there are probably wobbly with worry if this is the end of it or not.

If it had happened once (a shooting) I’d probably leave for a few days and then return; but since this is the third or fourth time there’s been either a serious threat or actual violence, I’d probably say fuck it and leave. It’s too nerve-wracking to sit there and be jumpy all the time, whether that’s just illogical over-worrying or not.

7

I agree with this.

None of the colleges I’ve attended or visited have had a single (or even a small number of) point(s) of entry. There’s no fence around the campus with only a few gates. At the University I graduated from, you could come on campus from any point on any side, and you wouldn’t look terribly out of place doing so.

The buildings are the same way. The one I spent most of my time in had at least seven different doorways students used frequently, and probably three or four more that were used on a semi-regular basis.

And that’s just the one building. There are more than 30 other academic buildings where I would guess security is the same (which is to say, none). There are probably 20-30 residence hall buildings of varying size, where security is a bit better (can’t get in without a key and fewer entrances).

How you secure that, save running a fence around the whole thing, leaving a few manned gates, and chaining all but one or two doors to each building, I don’t know. I think looking at the causes and seeing if something can be done there would probably be more productive.

8

Even if you had a school with a 50 ft electrified fence surrounding it, unless you are going to search every person and vehicle entering, it still wouldn’t do any good.

9

Yeah, Even if you could make the College a safe zone it wouldn’t do any good. I doubt a braincase case trying to make whatever point would really mind that much to have shoot students at the Starbucks just outside the perimeter.

10

Yep. I read an article last night with a quote from some studen that said “They said they were going to upgrade security so this wouldn’t happen and they failed!” That didn’t make any sense to me.

I graduated from NIU (class of 2000) and I still know that campus like the back of my hand. There is absolutely NO way to stop people from bringing guns onto campus. Like many campuses, school buildings are often nestled inbetween residential homes. Stores, restaurants, and apartment buildings are scattered all around campus. There are lakes, parks, and stadiums. The borders are porous as all hell.

I know the area from which he entered Cole Hall and it’s less than a two minute walk from a major street. When I went there, I used that pathway to get to and from a couple of local record and book stores all the time. I remember sprinting from those places to my dorm on the other side of Cole Hall because it was raining so hard.

This guy had his guns in a guitar case and was walking through campus. It’s entirely possible he parked at one of the restaurants or stores and just walked to the lecture hall on these sidewalks. How exactly is security supposed to stop this?

11

I live in Kirkwood, MO, which had its own shootings last week.

Except for having met the shooter briefly, years ago, I did not personally know anyone involved in the massacre. And, yes, I grieved, and yes I would have liked to have gone home – except that I WAS home.

Empathy was only a small part of my reaction. Most of it was shock, pure and simple. I know every detail of where the shooting took place. And I had a complete feeling of “I could have been there. It could have been me.”

Even the least empathetic person (and I rank fairly low on the empathy scale) can’t just hit the reset button aftera could-have-been-me experience. It takes some measure of time and distance to shake that off and get back to business as usual.

As for resuming “near-normal” activity as quickly as possible, it won’t happen. For a day or two, at least, everyone is consumed with what happened. Whether it’s shock, grief, curiosity or dredging up old grievances, your average human being won’t get a lot done for the first couple of days. Sometimes it’s better to just close down and let people adjust.

12

I’d bet that some of those kids are heading home at parents’ request. “Yes, dear, we know you’re all right, we just want to see you.” And some of them will need the comfort of the familiar. Humans often do better with contact.

The son of a friend of ours is a NIU student, and he’s home for the weekend. His mother will be happy to have him close for a little while, just for reassurance, I think.

eta: I really do know how to spell son.

13

I work at a Teeny Weeny Campus (800 students) of the Largest University in the U.S. Those of us in administrative positions agree that you can’t fight irrationality with rationality. A determined crazy person will figure out a way to inflict some sort of damage.

I was kind of surprised when we got an e-mail today from our counseling/student support people declaring a formal meeting time to “address our feelings and concerns,” along with a request to wear NIU’s colors, red and black, on the day of the meeting as a show of support.

If our students are upset by the NIU incident, by all means we should provide them with support. But the tone of the e-mail made me think there was a bit of self-fulfilling prophecy at work. “We, the counseling staff, expect you will be upset, because you should be!” It’s either alarmist (“Don’t you realize that this could happen to you?”) or accusatory (“If you’re not upset by this, there’s something wrong with you!”)

That being said, I will add that I am probably too empathetic for my own good. It rips my guts out to think about the parents of the students who died —the parents who sent their sons and daughters off to college, full of apprehension about their babies leaving the nest, full of love and pride at seeing them take wing, and trusting in the belief that they would be OK.

14

“Indefinite” is over-the-top, but I see nothing wrong with taking a few days off. I imagine the students who were in the classroom during the shooting are going to need some time to purge the memory of it all.

I’m reminded of what happened during 911. I was at Rutgers during that time, attending the Newark campus right across the river. On the day of, the president announced that all campuses would be closed the next day. But the Newark provost apparently thought that was unnecessary and made all of us attend classes anyway. It didn’t matter that a number of our faculty and students commuted daily from NYC and that we could literally smell the burning rubble, let alone see the smoke. He felt it was important for us to go on with our lives.

So the other campuses, which were nowhere near to the scene of the crime, had a day off, but we had to have stiff upper lips and make it through the day. It made no sense. Rebelliously, I ditched my classes and spent the day in the wilderness, far from the city. No fucking way was I going to pretend everything was okay. I don’t grieve that way.

15

I guess I rank a bit lower than you on empathy then. When a similar tragedy hit my school, classes were on as normal the next day (I think they may have continued that day). Everyone was talking about it, but we also went on.

Note though that this was the late 90s, before the rash of publicized school shootings and before 9/11. I think people have a somewhat different way of handling these things now. University administrations certainly do.

16

Hummmm, as a young person learning to fly airplanes, real bad stuff happened that scared the beejeezes out of me and I would not be here if I took time to worry and grieve and stuff and such, also would not have become a pilot if I did not ‘stay on the horse’. Of course when I was in high school in 1959, I carried a gun (good thing the Nuns never caught me) and so did others. Different mind set I suppose… We (students in general) watched the potential ‘whackjobs’ instead of pretending they were harmless.

When my daughter (she was 18) was murdered, if I had fell apart or if my son had fell apart, we both would not have survived anywhere near sane. Her Mother did not do so well and the expectation that she should fall apart I don’t think did her any favors…

Grieving is different for everybody, true, but this mass influx of counselors and whole societies coming to a screeching stop is an artificial construct made by ourselves for less than adequate reasons and is not conducive to making people more able to function in the world.

Being taught that we are supposed to be ‘stunned by violence’ is why so many just stand there like deaf cows waiting to to be shot instead of reacting to immediate danger with action. Heaven forbid if we were to actually think about what we or our kids should do when the world goes nuts around them. Much better to not plan or practice or discuss it at all so we don’t harm their poor delicate psyches.

YMMV

17

Now that it was determained the shooter was on Prozac and went off of it three weeks prior to the shooting I wonder what the backlash will be about that?

Also in Illinois they are making a law that will require mental health authorities to report people they consider dangerous or talk of such. Which makes me think all it will do is prevent people who have such urges from disclosing them to their therapists…

18

I watched the local news and read the paper this morning, and am more convinced than before that there is something a little off in the response to this tragedy. Just yesterday, staff members returned to campus, and on the news they tearfully described the “process” whereby they were able to return. And the paper says classes won’t resume until next Monday, at which time volunteer “grief counselors” will be present in every single class.

Now I do not want to suggest that it is inappropriate for any person to respond to an unexpected and tragic event in whatever manner they feel most appropriate. But I DO have a bit of an issue with an approach that seems to encourage people to magnify the personal distress they experience when bad things happen somehow connected with them.

Accomodations should certainly be made for the few people who feel a need for extraordinary measures to come to grips with such an occurrance. But I seriously question whether the majority - or even a significant percentage - of people in today’s society are so fragile that they need to take 7 days off of classes. I’m not suggesting we aspire to be Stoics and Spartans. But I think it is not entirely desireable for major institutions to act as tho the societal standard is such that people even tangentially related to misfortune ought to simply go to pieces and cease functioning productively.

Yeah, ugly stuff happens. And life goes on. It’s not all about you.

19

In the day or two directly after the shooting I remember some talking head talking about measures NIU was considering to make their school safer.

I was completely floored by this because NIU is probably the safest college in the world now. Campus shootings like are extremely rare and the odds of one happening twice at the same campus are out of this world.

20

Clearly no one else is as worked up about this as I, but a glimpse of the local news last night really revulsed me. There seems something truly morbid about the amount of energy and resources that are being directed at these few deaths.

It really makes me wonder whether diverse segments of our society - the news media, grief/self help counselors, people looking for something to emote about - actually are glad when a tragedy like this occurs.