On Feb. 13, at approximately 8:15 p.m., a gunman senselessly took the lives of three students and hospitalized five others. At that time, I was at the Spartan Sports Report, and we were filming our weekly sports show in the communication arts and sciences building on the south side of campus.
When the alert email was delivered to the campus, the 40 students that I was with looked at each other, all having just read the words “run, hide, fight.” We were frozen in shock and confusion while we waited for the anchors of the show to finish the script.
Immediately after the take finished, our advisor directed us to get out of the exposed glass newsroom and into a nearby classroom. We took cover, hiding under desks in the room we’d be trapped in for the next four hours.
As I huddled under the desk, I was terrified. In my mind, every noise in the hallway could have been the shooter. Every creak of the building turned everyone’s heads towards the sound. I was shaking, huddled under the desk, my head hitting the desk repeatedly as I shook.
After four hours of fear, confusion and worry, we received the all clear from the university emergency alert system. Our professor called the university police to ensure that it was safe to leave, and they confirmed. I felt completely numb riding home in my friend’s car, but I was safe.