It was hard to see through the small window in the classroom door, but suddenly students noticed people running down the halls. No one said a word. The business school class at the University of Southern California on Monday became very quiet and very tense.
Someone said there might be an active shooter. Some students hid under desks while others helped use a belt to secure the door, said Umar Farooq, a senior at the USC Marshall School of Business. Then, police officers came in and told them to leave their things in the classroom and evacuate immediately. “Everyone just ran,” he told The Washington Post. “It was genuine fear — ‘Holy s—, this is really happening.’”
Except it wasn’t. There was no violence. There was no threat. But in a sign of just how tense the world is, on the day after yet another mass shooting, an adjunct professor in another classroom apparently told students in her class there was an active shooter.
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On Sunday night, a gunman took aim at a crowded concert in Las Vegas, killing at least 58 people and injuring hundreds of others, the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history. The magnitude of that horror left people all over the world anxious, struggling to explain the inexplicable, praying for solace.
It may have triggered the professor’s response, according to some students.
Share this articleShareThe Daily Trojan, a campus newspaper at USC, quoted students such as freshman Brandon Kaufman:
He said when he arrived to class, his instructor seemed distraught and upset over Sunday’s mass shooting in Las Vegas.
About five minutes into class, according to Kaufman, the instructor said she heard gunshots and ordered the students in the class to barricade the door.
“Eventually, she ran out of the room and there was a police officer that came at one point and she was like, ‘Don’t shoot, don’t shoot,’ ” Kaufman said. “She eventually left the room running out, [saying] ‘help, help, help.’ ”
The 911 call triggered panic, a lockdown and an intense law-enforcement response. Police quickly searched Fertitta Hall, and found no danger to the community.
University officials worked to reassure students and others who had been frightened. Provost Michael Quick sent a message to the campus reminding them of counseling services that are available, and asking them to look out for one another. “In the aftermath of the tragic events in Las Vegas on Sunday, we understand this is a time of stress and anxiety.”
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The Los Angeles Police Department detained the faculty member for a 72-hour mental health evaluation, said David Carlisle, assistant chief for USC’s department of public safety.
“There were no criminal charges filed against her,” LAPD Officer Irma Mota said Tuesday. “There was no crime.”
Many students were tearful and shaken even as it became clear there was no danger, Farooq said.
“You have to have some kind of empathy for her,” he said. “She must be going through an immense amount of trauma.”
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