Gather Your Pitchforks

I saw an article last week in the Press-Citizen that caught my attention. I can't find the exact source where I first found the article, but I did find the same article on a Boston news page: http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/17321190/detail.html.

Anyway, apparently over 500 colleges around the nation and an expected 1,000 to follow in the near future have adopted or plan to adopt a training program sponsored by the Center for Personal Protection and Safety. In response to the Virginia Tech shooting and various other college shootings across the country, colleges are teaching students "not to take campus threats lying down but to fight back with any 'improvised weapon.'" Trainers encourage students to take advantage of strength in numbers to fight back against their assailant.

Overall, I think this is a really good idea. When I think back to tragic events such as these-though I am only able to see them through the lens of a person who wasn't directly affected-I imagine how differently things might have been if in these lecture halls where shooters opened fire on students, four or five students had decided gather every sharp, obtrusive object they could find and fight back. But this is the point where I start to doubt the effectiveness of this training.

So, I put myself inside that lecture hall. I'm sitting there, reading a text message from my love interest, furiously jotting down notes, when a student with a gun enters the room and starts shooting: he shoots the students who run, the students who cower in the corner, and he shoots the professor. At this point, it really doesn't matter how much I value the other student lives in the room with me or even how much I could get used to being a superhero and saving all of my classmates from destruction. All those thoughts I've ever had during a daydream (how if I ever came across a shooter, I would use my textbook as a frisbee, which would then hit the shooter in the head and knock him out cold on the floor) and any training I've had to deal with this type of situation will be erased. All of that training and preparation will go right out that door with me as I run to save my own life.

I hate to think that I would watch others die in the process of selfishly saving my own life. But perhaps it's instinctive. And I think most students could say the same. As screams bounce off the walls around them and adrenaline rushes through their veins, they are in no position to critically think, "Okay, what can I do here? How can I save this whole room of people? Well, I could..." Adrenaline says, "RUN, you are in serious danger!"

I applaud the colleges that have made an attempt to better prepare their students for potential disaster. If a few students somewhere could find a way to calm their nerves, slow their racing hearts, and ally together, countless lives could be saved.