It’s a terrifying moment to feel frozen by fear – when your heart pounds in your eardrums and your breath hesitates in anticipation. For most, that’s exactly what happens when the threat of violence is nearby. This week alone there were two school shootings: one in Flagstaff, Arizona and the other in Houston, Texas.
Here at Keene State College, on Monday October 5, text messages and emails were sent to KSC students and faculty about a potential gun violence issue.
Director of Strategic Communications and Community Relations Kelly Ricaurte said KSC faculty, staff and students were made aware through email and/or text message of a firearm being shown inside a vehicle located just outside of McDonald’s near the Winchester parking lot.
Ricaurte said, “Campus Safety was informed about nine minutes after the incident at McDonald’s. Updates followed shortly with a vehicle description and partial license plate information, and further details that made it clear the situation did not pose a threat to people on campus.”
However, other times in the past have proven more serious. On April 1 this past year, there was an individual with a gun walking around neighborhoods near campus which lead to a college lockdown.
KSC sophomore Katy Glosser said she was concerned as soon as she received the emergency notifications about the college lockdown and immediately called her mother and then her boyfriend.
“During the phone call with my boyfriend, I remember hearing [a] distant gunshot, and an officer driving around campus talking to us through a megaphone to head into the nearest building. I knew then that this wasn’t just an ordinary drill; it was real.”
Director of Campus Safety Amanda Guthorn said, “I think the most important element is that we want to deal with things before they get to that point, so education and awareness are paramount.”
Ricaurte said there are certain processes implemented for new students and employees on how to recognize traits of instability. She said, “[In addition], faculty and staff are briefed on emergency procedures in addition to receiving the KSC Emergency Guidebook, an indexed and tabbed flipbook of instructions on what to do in different types of emergencies, including active shooter and lock down. Additional training is provided throughout the year on behavior identification and management for early detection of potential issues.”
As for training, Guthorn said, “When we do training, we do behavior intervention training, how to identify people who may be struggling or having a crisis.”
She said that there is almost always an outside reason for someone randomly changing their behavior. Guthorn continued, “Really, the bottom line [is], if you have that weird feeling that anything is amiss, just call and ask; talk with them. Not every person who’s struggling is a going to be an active shooter. But that person may be struggling in some other way, so maybe they’ve had a personal tragedy, or they’re failing, or their financial aid was turned down, or all three of these things happen, which really puts somebody, you know at risk.”You don’t know until you ask.
Staff Counselor Forrest Seymour said there are resources available at the Counseling Center for students and any issue they may have.
“The counseling center is a confidential place of support for whatever issues a student may have,” he said.Seymour also said there is an anonymous reporting form associated with the counseling center, available online. “[Anyone] can fill it out anonymously if they’re concerned about a student; also on the Campus Safety website, there’s another form called the ‘Silent Witness’ form. So there are ways a student can reach out to the counseling center that are completely anonymous, if they don’t want their name associated,” he said.Another issue is knowing how to protect ourselves in the event of danger. Gun rights advocates say that we should be able to have guns in case we need to protect ourselves. KSC alumni Melissa Benik said, “There was an incident in Pennsylvania where an assistant principal stopped a student who had a gun with the intent to hurt others. The assistant principal himself had a gun.” She said we forget that there is another side of the story because the media is so liberal and only takes the one side that we need to get rid of all guns.
As a new mother, Benik said she would do whatever it takes to protect her child, even if that means personally owning a gun so as to prevent someone from shooting her or her child.
“I mean, there were these shootings at the Batman movie, right? If someone had been there to shot the guy with the intent to kill all these people, a lot of lives could have been saved,” Benik said.
Others argue we also need stricter gun policies.
Photo Illustration by Jake Coughlin / Administrative Executive Editor
Clai Lasher-Sommers, Westmoreland resident, advocate for gun safety and survivor of a gunshot incident said, “We need to have federal background checks (with no loopholes), at all gun sales and shows. It’s easier to get a license for a gun than it is to get a license to drive.”
She continued, “The work of more gun safety laws will be done by policy change state by state across the nation.”
Advocating for gun safety is personal as well as political for Lasher-Sommers, as she was only 13 when she was shot in the back by her stepfather. He went to prison for one year for aggravated harassment. The year was 1970. Lasher-Sommers didn’t let that gunshot stop her. When she was a bit older, she became the first coordinator of the Columbia-Greene County Rape Crisis Center in Upstate New York, and then went on to become the first Director of a Domestic Violence program and Shelter in Upstate New York. She is now a gun safety advocate and Fellow as well as a Survivor Engagement Lead with Everytown for Gun Safety and MOMS demand Action for NH. “I think I’m still recovering;” Lasher-Sommers said. “What we do as survivors of gun violence is to learn to walk beside the trauma and the resurgence of PTSD when there is a ‘trigger’ moment.” Lasher-Sommers said coming back to NH eight years ago, where the shooting occured, to live and attend KSC where she finished her degree in English and Writing was very difficult. When she was shot, the Elliot building was the Keene Hospital, which is where she was brought before being transferred to Mary Hitchcock in Hanover, NH.
Lasher-Sommers said, “I never realized that I would have such severe PTSD just walking on campus, and walking into Elliot.” She said she is relieved and thankful for KSC campus safety protocols as there are too many universities that do not have specific protocols or trainings for gun safety. According to everytownresearch.org, there has been “149 school shootings in America since 2013.”
“We need a society that doesn’t think that gun violence is the new normal. We need to come together as a nation and say that gun violence anywhere in our nation is unacceptable,” Lasher Sommers said. Glosser also said we need to all come together for a solution on how best to provide safety. She said, “We need more adequate protection that does not scare or punish innocent bystanders.”
She continued, “We forget to recognize this isn’t just the college’s battle; this is the area surrounding our college too. We should stop punishing ourselves for the mistakes of others and instead make sure the town can look beyond these struggles.”
Dorothy can be contacted at dengland@kscequinox.com