On March 30, St. Joe’s Hawk Hill campus experienced what turned out to be a false shooter report. This caused students to be confused, and very panicked, especially those who were in the Francis A. Drexel Library , the site of the false report. Everyone else on campus remained unaware until the news started to spread through frantic texts. There was no mention from the university that armed police were on campus, and had evacuated the library. Students not in the library found out about this situation through texts from friends or family members, who seemingly had more information than those on campus themselves.
Learning of an emergency situation on campus through word of mouth and without any notice or notification from the university is, to put it mildly, problematic. Hearing or seeing the words “possible active shooter on campus” from a friend or family member is jarring and terrifying. The university’s first alert on the event came long after the initial spread of panic and wave of questions, long enough for students to expect that St. Joe’s would be the site of the next school shooting, printed in headlines across the country. Thankfully, Thursday’s event was a false alarm. But that does not mean it will or should be easily forgotten.
According to the non-profit research database, Gun Violence Archive, there have been 131 mass shootings in the U.S. in 2023 — as of March 28. Growing up in a time where shootings on school and college campuses are not uncommon, students have learned the protocol — run, hide, fight. For more than 20 terrifying minutes for many on the Hawk Hill campus, those were the three courses of action that students, faculty and staff had to consider. They had to imagine what would happen if they made the wrong choice, if this wasn’t a false alarm. This situation is not an unimaginable one. Many people on this campus have gone through active shooter drills and warnings, had their schools locked down due to threats made and been walked through exactly what to do if the worst happened. Yet it is an entirely different matter to face the fact that, no matter for how long, your life is in real and present danger.
Gun violence in schools has taken the lives of too many — children, teachers, staff. Hawk Hill now knows what it looks like when that violence comes on campus. This situation may have been a false alarm, but that trauma won’t be forgotten quickly. The reverberations of Thursday will not leave campus soon, and with it comes the opportunity to analyze emergency response practices to better suit any future events that arise. Yet we cannot say that this is an opportunity to prepare for next time without acknowledging the very real possibility that there will be a next time. This is a larger issue that cannot be solved overnight — but, we can do better.
