The following piece is an opinion and does not reflect the views of The Eagle and its staff. All opinions are edited for grammar, style and argument structure and fact-checked, but the opinions are the writer’s own.
The fear you feel when you get a text from your school that says, “A dangerous subject is reported to be on or near campus. If you are outside, leave campus immediately. If you are inside, go to a location you can secure and hide, lock doors and stay away from windows,” is unparalleled. When communications stop after that text message, the emotions that follow are even worse.
At 2:40 PM on Oct. 14, American University’s campus received email and text blasts with the above message. A “dangerous subject” was reported on or near campus, and we were told to shelter in place. I had been walking to campus for a meeting and received this text as I was passing Kay Spiritual Life Center. Luckily, I was able to run home. But for the next 23 minutes, I sat petrified as I waited for what felt like hours to hear anything from the University. In a world where there have already been 485 mass shootings in 2024 and 31 in October alone, I was terrified that I or someone I love was going to become yet another statistic.
As all of AU waited for 23 minutes, rumors quickly began to circulate in all of my group chats, Slack channels and social media platforms. One person claimed shots were fired in Kerwin Hall, another heard running footsteps in McKinley and yet another saw someone with a gun in the Mary Graydon Center. And it all turned out to be false — it was a student with a toy gun walking around Anderson Hall and the Hall of Science.
I remember staring at my phone, trying to update everyone in my life as quickly as possible — texting my friends to ensure they were safe, calling my mom to tell her I was okay and refreshing social media every second to see if there were any official updates from the University. But there weren’t. The University offered no updates between 2:40 p.m., when the initial message was sent, and 3:03 p.m. when the all-clear message was sent. That is something that I am absolutely not okay with.
The University and the AU Police Department have a responsibility to communicate with the campus community. Keeping us in the dark for 23 minutes when, as far as we know, there is a dangerous person on campus is irresponsible. Such irresponsibility warrants immediate change. During on-campus incidents, the community needs to receive frequent updates, even if just from an automated system. I am not advocating for AUPD to stop trying to deal with the problem to send out a text blast — rather, AUPD needs to implement a system that sends text and email updates every few minutes until the final all clear.
Twenty-three minutes is too long to be kept in the dark. I remember seeing people post on social media and text in my group chats asking if things were okay and if anyone had heard anything. No one had an answer. It should not be difficult for AUPD to implement this measure to keep students safe and informed about campus safety.
A simple message saying, “There is still an active threat. Please continue sheltering in place,” every three to five minutes could be a scary idea to some, but the reality is that if we’re receiving these messages, we know not to stop hiding. We know not to leave the building we’re in. It’s much less likely that someone will impatiently get up because they have somewhere to be and AUPD hasn’t communicated anything about an all-clear in over 20 minutes.
On a campus where AUPD is already so heavily scrutinized and distrusted by students, it’s important they take measures to keep us as safe as possible, and that includes keeping us in the loop during active threats.
Alana Parker is a junior in the School of Public Affairs and School of Communication and the assistant opinion editor for The Eagle.
This article was edited by Rebeca Samano Arellano and Abigail Turner. Copy editing done by Luna Jinks, Nicole Kariuki and Ella Rousseau.
