Editor’s note: This article contains discussions of gun violence.
It was only one week into the school year. I was sitting outside of my Sutherland dorm on the phone with my mother on a late Sunday night. We had just been giggling about how much I missed my dog when what sounded like two gunshots echoed through the sky. I paused. My mother had not heard them through the phone, but the few other students sitting at the tables around me did. Our heads perked up, and we looked at each other, trying to read one another’s faces to see if it was some freak, shared imaginary episode.
Three more loud bangs rang out, and we collectively decided to rush inside to avoid becoming yet another name and photo that appeared on the evening news. No AlertVU was ever sent that night, presumably because it did not appear that the gunshots had been let out close enough to campus, but this knowledge did nothing to ease my mind.
First-year student Darrah Handmaker was at the table next to me doing homework when we heard the nearby gunshots.
“[When I heard the gunshots], I felt scared, and my first reaction was to make sure everyone that was outside, and I got into the building as quickly as possible,” Handmaker said.
Despite us both making it inside safely, no student should ever have to feel the fear that was shared between us that night. Being at a school of just 7,000 students in a nation of around 333 million, I often believe that a mass shooting could never actually happen to us, and I mourn them from afar. But, the distance between our very own school and these large-scale killings seems to only be shrinking. Of course, it is unreasonable to spend every waking moment of our lives fearing for our safety. But with over 383,000 students nationwide now having experienced gun violence at their school since 1999, it only makes sense to consider what we can do in order to not be added to this growing list of victims.
Following that fateful Sunday night, I wondered how equipped Vanderbilt really is for responding to an active shooter. Though AlertVU is typically efficient at making students aware of potential danger, it certainly has flaws — especially considering that it didn’t go off that night. If a shooting is close enough to campus that I can hear it directly outside of my dorm, it is necessary that Vanderbilt alert the student body and reassure those who may be concerned. Clearly, this had not been the case for me and my Sutherland peers.
Sadly, AlertVU isn’t the only faulty protection system that the university has put in place. While I walk through multiple metal detectors daily to enter certain Vanderbilt buildings, such as Central Library, they are only present in a select few locations. Thus, the rest of our buildings have been left defenseless. Plus, with Vanderbilt having an open campus, an armed student or trespasser could very easily pose a threat to my classmates’ and my well-being by just stepping onto one of our lawns. That intruder would never actually have to come in contact with a metal detector, as they could simply walk in from a neighboring Starbucks and pretend to be one of our very own peers. Additionally, these detectors are not even present in every building, considering my own dorm hall does not have a metal detector at any of its three entrances. Seeing how effortless it would be for a trespasser to avoid a metal detector, these are ultimately inefficient at identifying an armed intruder throughout the majority of campus. Vanderbilt has equipped many of its lawns with emergency dial buttons that can be used to dial the VUPD communications center, but who knows how many lives may be lost before they are able to arrive to stop an intruder who is already on campus grounds?
Similar to the presence of metal detectors at varying doorways, I’m frequently stopped by security guards stationed at building entrances to check my ID. While I appreciate Vanderbilt’s priority to make sure only students are entering dorm halls in the evening hours, it fails to consider that the residents cleared to enter right behind me could, unfortunately, be the same people concealing weapons of mass destruction. Merely checking IDs does not reduce all potential threats.
When asked about their campus safety measures in protecting against gun violence, the university responded, “Vanderbilt can and does restrict weapons on campus to protect the safety and well-being of the Vanderbilt community. The university takes action when its policies are violated and/or when the safety of the campus is jeopardized.”
Though Vanderbilt has rules to prevent students from becoming a threat to their peers with a prohibition on firearm possession while on campus, with over 7,000 students at our school, I simply do not trust every one to abide by this rule. Despite the university’s attempts, merely adding signs around campus advertising the prohibition does not actively enforce the accountability some students may require to leave their weapons at home. While I understand that many may own a firearm out of fear for their safety, I feel that there is no way to distinguish between those with good and bad intentions until it is far too late. Between the lack of metal detectors and an inefficiency of ID checkers to stop our own peers, we may never know who has chosen not to follow the no firearms policy until they are actually pointing their weapon towards us.
To see proof of how these protocols truly lack effectiveness, every one of us can take one quick trip to Google. For instance, you can read the story of how a 14-year-old student already inside a campus building left class to retrieve their gun before unleashing terror on their school in early September. Checking IDs was insignificant. Just three months prior, you can read about a 17-year-old student who shot his classmate in the school parking lot. Metal detectors could not have prevented that. These events horrify me, and they should horrify you, too.
But, all hope is not lost. Universities around the nation are looking towards other solutions, setting up better precautions to not only prevent but also respond to active shootings. It is dire that Vanderbilt does the same. For instance, at Michigan State University, all students can take classes on incident training for active violence. Colleges in New York have set up behavioral threat assessment teams to identify those they feel are “on the pathway to violence,” recognizing and stopping students from committing a violent act before they even think about doing so. While Vanderbilt has this particular resource implemented at our school already, in my experience, many students are unaware of how to actually contact this safety team. This demonstrates that our university not only needs to enact new precautions but also needs to enact them effectively.
To some extent, the university has taken steps towards this with new signs appearing around the campus that warn the community that carrying weapons on school property is prohibited.
Experts have also shared their advice. An article by Everytown describes how colleges should establish increased access to trusted adults that students can go to for mental support or to report behavior that they believe is concerning. Ultimately, for solutions to succeed, they require a positive, comfortable environment — something that Vanderbilt can and must replicate.
While Vanderbilt should certainly take accountability for preventing violence on our campus, we as students can and should contribute to the end of mass shootings nationwide. With the general elections just around the corner, we can put action towards real change so that there is no longer a fear of opening our phones and seeing a classmate’s final text.
While I am not here to tell you who to vote for, I am affirming that it is more important now than ever that each voter-aged student make the most educated decision in November. Resources for voting as a Tennessee resident can be found here. Before even voting, however, you should also educate yourself on politicians’ platforms to make the best decision for your beliefs on Nov. 5.
If you are a student who is not old enough to vote yet or who wants to make more impact, there are a variety of actions that you can and should engage in to make a contribution to improved school safety — some of which I have done myself. These include joining a protest, writing a letter to a politician, interning on an election team or even just getting involved in local political groups.
While we cannot blame Vanderbilt for the fact that it is easier than ever for any 18-year-old to obtain a weapon in Tennessee, there is no denying that they can do more to help their own students from fearing for their lives. I believe that if students and Vanderbilt administration work together to make changes on and off campus, we may be able to prevent our university from becoming number 59 on the list of school shootings that have occurred just this year.
