As most of you know, our youngest daughter is wrapping up her freshman year at UCLA. Today, we were faced with the nightmare that comes with being a parent these days – a madman had taken over the campus.
Thanks to BruinAlert, the entire campus was shutdown within minutes, and Natalie was locked down with four staff people and about 50 dance students in a classroom near Royce Hall. We communicated freely by text, and the immediate threat seemed to be manageable.
But the uncertainty over the next 2.5 hours was harrowing, to say the least. At one point, Natalie heard there were four shooters who left the Engineering building and were heading for Sorority Row.
Hundreds of warriors converged into Westwood within 1-2 hours to stop a threat, for which I am thankful. But in this case, the threat was over before they arrived, shouldn’t they have a proper response for that too?
Natalie’s response to me texting her that the police chief had declared the campus safe?
“Dope I’m getting food”
The next generation is getting an education alright.
Another response:
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-ucla-campus-shooting-20160601-snap-story.html
The massive police and emergency response proved unnecessary, but there was no way the LAPD could have known that when the panicked call came in. And this is where we are – the anticipation that a shooting on a college campus was going to turn out to be a mass tragedy, and that a major city’s law enforcement response is geared up for that eventuality.
So relieved your daughter, Natalie, (and others) are safe, Jim.
Just read this post from Jeremy Peschard, a student at UCLA, on his FB page:
“2nd school shooting and full campus lockdown in my 3 years as an undergrad. Taking the day to process everything but still genuinely don’t know how to feel right now – glad the people I love are safe, praying for the victim’s family, mad that this is still happening what feels like practically everyday.
I was asked by a journalist about how it felt being at both UCSB and UCLA during these campus shootings, and I honestly didn’t even know what to say. I’m glad to be safe but it’s just so wrong how normal this all feels right now.
Idk ya’ll i just really feel like we can do better than this.”