As we all now know, April Fool’s Day this year was one for the books. I was lucky enough to have gotten to class right before the report or lockdown, but I imagine it could have been truly scary for those who got caught up in the middle of it. While scrolling through my newsfeed on Facebook later that day, I came across an article that someone had shared from a website called freekeene.com titled “Police Overreact in Manhunt For Local Scumbag, ‘Lockdown’ College.”
Granted, much of my knowledge of what happened was based on hearsay, since I was already safe in my classroom when it all occurred, but this article astounded me and I haven’t been able to get it out of my head since.
Not that the article needs much of a summary, seeing as the title pretty much speaks for itself, but in short- the writer believed that the lockdown and the procedure of it, was a joke on multiple accounts.
As far as I’m concerned, if the town police and department of campus safety believed that the faculty and students of Keene State College were in enough danger to be locked down, I’m incredibly impressed at how quickly and efficiently they did so.
The author writes, “Just because some local white supremacist loser fires a gun in a domestic dispute doesn’t mean the campus is in jeopardy. Even if it was in jeopardy, their current safety measures will most certainly result in bloodshed of campus staff, at minimum.”
First of all, if “some local white supremacist scumbag” fired a gun in a domestic dispute on a street directly across from campus, and then the man was reportedly spotted on the campus shortly after, I think damn well that the campus was in jeopardy.
Secondly, when one decides to become college professors, he or she is knowingly responsible for their students’ safety.
To me, a proud white supremacist “scumbag” angry enough to have fired a gun in a dispute with his girlfriend being on campus sounds like plenty of reason to prompt a lockdown — has this writer never heard of the tragedies from Columbine High School, Virginia Tech or Sandy Hook?
The writer goes on to describe his observations, “As I was walking across campus, every single glass door to the campus buildings were being ‘guarded’ by campus staff. Put another way, a madman with a gun could easily slaughter multiple campus staff, who of course are completely unarmed and essentially standing in the open.”
The writer also mentions that he was in the dining commons and disregarded the staff completely when they told him not to leave.
I think the fact that every single door to every single building on campus was being guarded is absolutely incredible, and I genuinely wish I could thank every single staff member who did so. Does this writer think that these staff members were unaware that they were unarmed and potentially at risk?
They knew exactly what they were doing and deserve to be immensely appreciated and honored, not mocked. The most unsettling part of this article is when the author writes “Given that murder wasn’t the suspect’s intentions (he is accused of firing a gun in the air, not directly at anyone), no one on campus was in danger — this time . . . Had this guy wanted to hurt college students, he’d have come on campus and done that right away, before police were called, and no one would have been able to stop him, unless of course they too were carrying illegally on campus.”
I could be wrong, but it seems that the author doesn’t know the “local scumbag” Tyler Day on any personal level, so why on earth does he think he has any reason at all to know what Day’s intentions were?
And no, at the time the gun was fired, nobody on campus was in danger, but the second he was believed to be on campus, we all were.
Once again, I could be wrong, but I think it seems perfectly reasonable that “This guy” could have known that he had illegally fired a weapon, and if freaked out and not thinking clearly easily could have come to campus.
And furthermore, Day is not the Hulk, so to say that no one would have been able to stop him is actually laughable due to the “man in military olive green walking quickly across campus who appeared to have a machine gun.”
An opinion is an opinion; the writer of that article is entirely entitled to share his own which I fully and respectfully support, but I’m also entitled to my own.
Becca Falk can be contacted at bfalk@kscequinox.com
