Pace Paw Print

St. John's University freshman Lindsay Tyler already wasn't loving her first year at school, but last week's gun scare was all she needed to commit to transferring.

Tyler was in her management class in Marillac Hall when she received a text message from a friend saying a masked gunman was in that building. Other students in the class also received text messages from Public Safety, alerting them about the gunman, and informing them that the school was on lockdown.

"A Public Safety officer came to our class and said it was a lockdown, and to get to our dorms right away. We all had to sprint back to the dorms and couldn't leave until four hours later," she said.

Tyler watched the news during the lockdown, and became startled when CNN reported that police were searching for two other suspects on campus. "I heard that news report and didn't hear anything from the school on the matter. They took us off lockdown and didn't comment on the two suspects, so people were wandering around wondering what happened to them."

Although classes were sat to resume the next day, according to Tyler, many students either went home or stayed in their dorms.

"I didn't go to classes for the next two days and no one else did either because we were all freaked out." Tyler doesn't know anyone who was familiar with the suspect, but she has difficulty believing his alleged Schizophrenia has anything to do with the gun scare. "They showed (on the news) his neighbors saying he was a very polite, normal kid who kind of just stuck to himself," she said.

When asked if this incident completely made her want to transfer, Tyler immediately replied yes. "You just can't trust anyone here," she said. "I've already written my admission essay for UMass Amherst."

Article Tools