Warning signs
Shooting survivor shares advice to prevent tragedies
A survivor of the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting who now leads a nonprofit dedicated to improving the safety of all kinds of school campuses spoke about the issue at Arizona Western College’s Yuma campus twice Monday.
Kristina Anderson of the Koshka Foundation spoke in the morning to an audience of educators and first responders in the morning and to general members of the public in the afternoon, delivering the same memories and insights to both.
She gave a detailed, clinical account of what happened in Norris Hall, the three-story, L-shaped classroom building at the university in Blacksburg, Va. where most of the carnage occurred, including how architecture in the structure completed in 1962 was destiny.
“The most interesting thing about Norris Hall from a human, from a first-responder capacity, is that the entire building has three exits. If you think where we’re sitting today you can see at least three, maybe five directly around us in this space,” she said, speaking Monday afternoon in a meeting room at AWC’s Schoening conference center, completed in 2009.
It is believed this could be the reason the shooter chose Norris Hall to stage his attack. “If you’re trying to trap someone in a particular space, logistically, it’s a
good place to do so,” Anderson said.
Thirty-two victims, along with the shooter, died in the Virginia Tech massacre, which is still the deadliest school shooting in modern U.S. history. Thirty of them were at Norris Hall. Anderson, then 19, was shot or grazed by three bullets.
She and a friend were late to their French class in Room 211 that morning and ended up sitting in the back, minutes before the gunman burst into the room. Their teacher, known as Madame Couture, had seen him in the hallway and was trying to shove a desk against the door with help from students when he entered, Anderson said.
The instructor and 11 students in the room were killed. No one died in a nearby classroom which had a little bit more warning. They blocked the door by having five students pile up in front of it, while the rest of the students lay down on the floor, giving the impression that the door was locked and the room empty.
Anderson said there wasn’t much else her teacher and classmates could have done to try to protect themselves, given their circumstances.
She said it’s very difficult to react quickly “unless you’ve thought about it in advance – what are my options, how do I get out of this building, how do I lock myself in here if I had to, what can I throw you as a weapon if i had to? The more you play those mental exercises in your head, I think the more attuned you are to potentially be able to make a faster reaction.”
Being aware of your surroundings, including knowing where the exits are and paying attention to noise or other warning signs, are among the best methods for protecting yourself.
To increase school safety in particular, it’s important to keep urging students, teachers and staff to report anything that makes them uneasy.
“One of the most fundamental things you can start to do is educate your community on a multi-modal basis what to report,” she said. “It sounds very basic to walk and talk to your peers or your kids about, ‘when you see bullying and harassment, all these things, but if you don’t beat them over the head with what you want to hear from them, how do you expect them to tell us in the first place?”
Making sure everyone knows who they can report a potential problem to is another vital piece of the puzzle, she added.
Communication within the campus community and between authorities is another key, she said. Information sharing between schools and law enforcement has improved in the last 10 years, she said, and needs to continue.
She said 10 out of 40 students in one of gunman Seung-Hui Cho’s earlier classes stopped going because of his odd behavior, including taking photos of female students under his desk and rarely showing up without sunglasses on.
“When 10 people start changing their behavior in that regard, that should be a signal and a sign. When I talk to employees or students at a school, (that ask) ‘What’s the first time to report?’ that gut feeling you have that something is off, that’s fear. That’s telling you something is going on that we have to be open about,” she said.
Anderson took part in commemorations of the Virginia Tech tragedy last April, and urged listeners to not be afraid to recognize an anniversary of the same sort, with people they know.
“If you know someone who’s been in any type of incident five, 10 years ago, reach out on the anniversary. Make a gesture. They have not forgotten that it happened. They will still appreciate that sense of affirmation, especially today, on 9/11, in someone that recognizes their loss, their experience, in whatever way is appropriate.”
She said she also believes not naming the perpetrator of mass shootings in media reports can help by deterring others who might be thinking of seeking the same sort of notoriety through such a crime.
Her speeches were cohosted by Yuma Proving Ground and AWC, with the Department of the Army funding the speaker through YPG and the college providing its conference facility, publicity and other services.
AWC Police Chief John Edmundson followed Anderson’s 90-minute presentation by saying, “A lot of stuff that Kristina talks about, takes place at Arizona Western College behind the scenes, takes place at District One, takes place at the elementary schools here in the Yuma County area.
“We’re very cognizant of the problems here and what can happen. We train for them, we have all this stuff in place, hopefully we’ll never have to use it.”