On March 27, 2023, The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee joined the troubling long list of schools that have fallen victim to mass shootings. An article from The Xavierite titled The 129th Mass Shooting in 2023 details the timeline of the tragic event.
When tragedy strikes, it stirs people’s strongest emotions and greatest fears. Gun violence, particularly in schools, is one that predominates the thoughts of many students.
When asked how they reacted to the news of the Nashville shooting, a member of the editorial board stated that “This news is always saddening. But it’s getting to the point where it’s not shocking anymore because so many keep happening.”
According to The Washington Post, there have been 18 school shootings in 2023 alone, so the idea of being trapped in one is something that crosses the minds of students more often than it ever should. A member of the board described it as something “constantly on my mind; it is a reality that we unfortunately have to live with currently. While we have been lucky that it has never happened to us, the threat is always there.”
Ever since the 1999 Columbine school shooting, most of these tragedies have taken place in grammar schools or high schools, but that does not mean colleges are safe from shootings, seeing as Michigan State University was victim to one in February of this year.
Seeing the horrors so many schools have faced raises the question if Saint Xavier University is prepared to respond to an emergency. When asked if universities should have active shooter drills, the editorial board agreed that, while it would be great to have drills like these in place at SXU, it would not be realistic due to the size of campus and the different buildings.
One of the members stated that they “think it would be too hard for universities, especially if they are a larger community, but there should be updated drill protocols that students and everyone else can pay attention to.”
There are many small posters around campus that show standard procedures for what someone should do in case of an emergency. Additionally, SXU’s public safety is ready to act in case of an active shooter.
In The 129th Mass Shooting in 2023, Chief Melvin Cornelius spoke about public safety’s response plan to an active shooter, stating that the university has a “policy that requires our officers to respond rapidly to the incident. We no longer wait for Special Teams to arrive and respond to the incident.”
After the editorial board reviewed this plan, some members expressed that they felt safe, stating “I have always felt pretty safe living here and everything. Public safety has always helped me.” Another member stated “I feel a bit safer knowing that there is a plan in place.”
No matter how many protocols an institution puts in place, safety is never guaranteed. However, there are some protocols that can help students feel more secure. One of these is enabling swipe access to the buildings on campus.
Swipe access was available on campus for a short time as part of a COVID-19 safety procedure, but was then removed.
A member of the editorial board voiced their frustrations about the lack of swipe access, stating “My safety concerns aren’t even about campus as a whole at this point, they’re about the Warde Academic Center. Saint Xavier is the first school I have attended or been to that lets anyone walk in freely.”
With all the violence going on in the world, students have more than enough reason to worry about their safety and make their voices heard about it. When asked if their safety felt prioritized on campus, nearly every member of the board said it did not.
A member of the board stated “Most students are unaware of any of the school’s protocols for situations such as this (active shooter) and that will prove to be detrimental in the case of an emergency.”
After two articles expressing concern over lack of swipe access and availability of protocol information, and a meeting that involved members of public safety and President Joyner where the Student Government Association (SGA) discussed their concerns about the same two topics, there is still no change or proposal for change.
Even after members of the student body raised their concerns about safety on campus at SGA’s open forums, there is still no change. In last week’s article about campus safety, Chief Cornelius stated “Our current building access plan has been reviewed by our University Leadership Team. At this time, there is no information regarding intention to modify the existing plan.”
A member of the board stated “If our safety was a priority, the university administration and campus safety would actually be listening to what students have been voicing about all year. But instead, they seem to view many issues on campus as things that students don’t deserve a say on, regardless of how directly they impact us.”
There are some protocols in place that keep students safe and the editorial board acknowledges that. However, it is not enough when the bare minimum of keeping strangers out of our campus cannot be a possibility.