C o llegiat eCaseS tu d y
THE NATION ’S NEW S PAPER
Campus killers’ warningsignored
By
Thomas Frank
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Campus security flaws in 15slayings at colleges
By Thomas Frank.................................................................................7-8
Terror in Illinois classroom
By
Judy Keen
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Va. Tech students move in,move on
By
Donna Leinwand
.................................................................................4-5
Critical inquiry
Discussion and future implications.............................................................................12-13
www.usatodaycollege.com
© Copyright 2008 USATODAY, a division of Gannett Co., Inc. All rights reserved.
No public institution or workplace is immune to random violence; incidentsoccur at businesses, shopping malls, places of worship and on college or univer-sity campuses. It seems especially egregious that this type of violence shouldoccur at institutions of higher learning, however, as it often impacts those whoare experiencing their first real independence as young adults.Since the Blacksburg tragedy, security efforts have increased and become moresophisticated, yet, as free and open places of discourse, campuses will alwaysremain vulnerable.This case study will explore efforts to identify those that may be troubled andprone to violence, as well as ways to increase student safety while maintainingthe essential open quality of higher education. Students will also consider theimpact of school violence on their campus communities, peer relationships,families and personal habits.
Curbing Campus Violence
12 States debate gunson campus
ampus alert systems take hold
By
Andrea Stone
.....................................................................................9
Stunned campus vows tobounce back
By
Andy Gardiner
.............................................................................10-11
By Marisol BelloUSATODAY
Even before a gunman killed five peo-ple and injured several others in a lec-ture hall at Northern Illinois University,a small but growing movement hadbeen underway at universities andstate legislatures to allow students, fac-ulty and staff to carry guns on campus.Twelve states are considering bills thatwould allow people with concealed-weapons permits to carry guns at pub-lic universities. The efforts weresparked by the Virginia Tech massacrelast April.Students for Concealed Carry onCampus, an Internet-based organiza-tion with 11,000 members in itsFacebook group, is calling attention tothe issue with a protest from April 21to 25, a week after the one-yearanniversary of the shootings at VirginiaTech on April 16"The only way to stop a person with agun is another person with a gun," saysUniversity of Cincinnati sophomoreMichael Flitcraft, 23. The mechanicalengineering major has a license tocarry guns but is prohibited by univer-sity rules from bringing one onto thecampus.So far, 1,600 students on 500 campuseshave signed up on Facebook to partici-pate in the protest by wearing emptyholsters to class. W. Scott Lewis, thegroup's spokesman, says about 530students from 125 campuses joined asimilar protest in October.
Case study expert:
Josephine M. Kim, Ph.D.
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AS SEEN IN USA TODAY’S NEWS SECTION FEBRUARY 15, 2008, 3A
Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.Page 2
"School is the only place I'm not allowed to carry myweapon," says Washington State University senior KristinGuttormsen, 35, one of the group's student leaders. He car-ries a .40-caliber Taurus Millenium Pro handgun."I felt defenseless, and it started to bug me, especially withall the school shootings," he says. "We're not talking aboutconvincing people to get licenses, we're talking about peo-ple who already have their licenses. And for the most part,they are older students."South Dakota is the latest state to join the debate. The stateHouse approved a bill last week that overturns the policy of the state's six public universities prohibiting guns on cam-pus. A state Senate committee voted down the bill onMonday, but efforts continue to push the bill to the fullbody for vote. Other bills are pending in Alabama, Arizona,Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, South Carolina,Tennessee, Virginia and Washington."This is the piece of legislation of the year" among statelawmakers nationwide, says Kentucky Democratic Rep.Kathy Stein, who opposes it.In her state, there is a battle over a bill that would allow agun on campus if it is locked in a car. Stein says public uni-versities should be allowed to set their own policies.Kentucky's eight public universities bar guns on campus,including parking lots.The Kentucky bill's sponsor, Democratic Rep. RobertDamron, says college campuses should be treated the sameas every other place in Kentucky, where gun owners cankeep firearms in their cars, regardless of whether they areon public or private property.Only Utah allows permit holders to carry guns on the cam-puses of its nine public universities. Thirty-eight states andthe District of Columbia prohibit guns in schools; 16 of those specifically prohibit guns in colleges and universities.The push to allow guns on campus rankles Garrett Evans,who was shot in both legs during the Virginia Tech ram-page, and Omar Samaha, whose younger sister, Reema, waskilled."Having guns in the classroom only makes things worse,"says Evans, 31. He says the Virginia Tech gunman, Seung HuiCho, walked into his German class and began shooting soquickly that no one would have had time to shoot back.Samaha says guns on campus are a risk in an environmentwhere young people drink and fight and are not always ableto control their emotions. "It's kind of a crazy notion tothink about," he says. "It takes us back to the Wild, WildWest."
Page 3
AS SEEN IN USA TODAY’S NEWS SECTION FEBRUARY 15, 2008, 1A
Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.
By Judy KeenUSATODAYDEKALB, Ill. -- Students crawled, hid and ran in terrorfrom a man dressed in black who appeared frombehind a screen at a lecture hall Thursday at a universi-ty west of Chicago and blasted students with gunfirebefore killing himself in a melee that was over in lessthan two minutes, school officials said.Five died from gunshot wounds and 16 others wereinjured in the Northern Illinois University (NIU) shoot-ing, university Police Chief Donald Grady said.Desiree Smith was sitting near the back of a lecture hallin Cole Hall around 3 p.m. when the shooter walkedthrough a door at the side of the stage and startedshooting."I kept thinking, 'Oh God, he's going to shoot me. OhGod, I'm dead,'" the senior journalism major said."People were crawling on each other, trampling eachother," she said. "As I got near the door, I got up and Istarted running."Grady said the gunman had a shotgun and two pistolsand was not a student at the school of 25,000 students.University President John Peters said the gunman was aformer graduate student in sociology at NIU, but wasnot currently enrolled at the campus about 65 mileswest of Chicago.Peters said the four women and one man the gunmankilled were all students. Four others were in criticalcondition late Thursday.The shooting recalled the deaths of 32 people atVirginia Tech last year at the hands of a student gun-man, an act that prompted schools across the countryto re-examine campus security.The shooting came after police investigated inDecember writings on a dormitory wall that includedracial slurs and references to the Virginia Tech shoot-ings. Police found no imminent threat at the time.The first shots were fired just after 3 p.m. during ageology class led by a graduate student. At 3:07 p.m.,Peters said they put the entire campus on "lockdown,"but did not elaborate on what that meant. Two minuteslater sophomore Melissa Elaguizy said a teacher arrivedat her classroom in DuSable Hall, near Cole Hall, towarn of a possible shooting and order the doors of theclassroom locked.Peters said the school put out a campuswide alert at3:20 p.m. that included a message on the school's web-site, e-mails, voice mails, public address systems andcalls to media outlets. The warning on the website wasposted at 3:20 p.m.Elaguizy said she didn't receive a warning on her cell-phone. The first e-mail she got warning of a possiblegunman came at 3:41 p.m.On campus Thursday night, students were streamingout of a dormitory heading for home.Robin Johnson, 18, a freshman from Chicago, was in herEnglish class when classmates received text and phonemessages about the shooting. She said her teacherlocked the door, shoved a desk against the door and puta trash can on top of the desk."We didn't know how many of them there were. Wedidn't know if we were safe," she said.Eric Johnson, 23, a senior from Addison, Ill., said he wasstanding 20 feet from the entrance to Cole Hall when"the doors flung open and a ton of people ran out. Theywere yelling, 'He's got a gun!'" Johnson heard two shotsas he ran back to his dorm room.
Contributing: William M. Welch in Los Angeles; Alan Gomez in McLean, Va
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Terror in Illinois classroom
6 killed, including gunman, in 2 minutes at university
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USA TODAY Collegiate Case Study: Curbing Campus Violence
No public institution or workplace is immune to random violence; incidents occur at businesses, shopping malls, places of worship and on college or university campuses. Yet it seems especially egregious that this type of violence should…
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