Connector Editor
Faculty and students assembled in a small room with police officers to learn how to defend themselves should there ever be a tragic shooting at UMass Lowell. In that very room everyone learned the horrible truth that you are vulnerable anywhere you are on campus.
The course did not just deal with situations involving active shooters. In a significant amount of attacks that occur, the aggressor used a knife.
According to Officer Stephen Eramo, an instructor for the course, the frequency of attacks has also increased. Many of those attacks were premeditated.
The instructors presented the class with a study of 160 cases involving mass shootings. Of those 160 cases, 45 of them involved law enforcement actively engaging with the shooter which resulted in nine law enforcement officers killed and 28 injured.
However, 90 of those cases ended before law enforcement even got there, usually from suicide or fleeing the scene. The Organization in charge of preventing such tragedies on campus is Stars.
Stars is who we would report to should we see a student who looks depressed or mentally affected by either their situation or by not taking their meds. Stars can then make the choice to stage an intervention for the student.
Annie Ciaraldi works for Stars and has admitted that when they get reports of students who could be potential threats, difficult decisions have been made out of the interest of protecting the community.
“Interventions could be a potential FERPA (Family and Educational Rights Privacy Act) violation,” says Ciaraldi. “I pick my plaintiff. I’ll get a letter from the Department of Education.”
According to Ciaraldi, most of the time students who suffer mentally are grateful others have noticed and are offering them help. How much help they are allowed to give or any actions taken is limited by FERPA or other various laws.
“We can’t force them to leave. We can’t make them take medication. We can only help them see what is happening and to hopefully make the right decision,” says Ciaraldi.
The subjects of anonymity, confidentiality and mandated reporting was brought up by a concerned faculty member.
Are we allowed to report students anonymously? In theory, yes, but they would like to know who sent it so the officers who work in threat assessment can get more information. Also the constitutional law says people have the right to know who their accusers are should the report involve a committed crime.
No one has coverage of confidentiality, unless they are a therapist. Under Title 9, which is mainly referring to sexual violence, faculty members are mandated reporters as well. So for some people on campus, reporting suspicions or mentally suffering students can actually be required.
This system of finding students who could potentially become a threat before they even act out is only one part of the defense. There is of course the scary possibility that a student takes everyone by surprise.
“People typically do not just snap,” says Eramo. He emphasizes how important it is to report students and suspicious behavior as early as possible to prevent the shooting or stabbing before it even happens, but he does acknowledge that the system cannot catch everybody.
What students should do in case of an incident involving an active shooter could be to run. The old method of hiding is not that effective unless you can get both concealment and cover.
“Cover protects you, concealment just hides you,” says Eramo.
If the options of running or hiding are not available, the only option is to fight. According to Officer Jeff Connors, any group of people can take down a gunman. It is a last resort in a very rare situation, but that is what students and faculty should do if it is the only option.
“80-85 percent of the population can be conditioned to react,” says Connors. “The rest will psychologically shut down and might go into shock.”
The officers on campus want to prevent such situations so that members of the community will not be forced to make the hard decision of fight or flight. Something as simple as shutting off your cellphone in class could make you less capable of dealing with a situation, should it occur.
The officers want the community to be as capable in fighting the threat of active shooters and aggressors as possible especially since these situations are more common. The students and faculty at the event were told to not be defeated by the idea that a campus cannot fight back. “The biggest defeater of man is self-doubt,” says Connors.
