Following shooting at Michigan State, students, parents, discuss campus safety
More than 700 miles away, Madhavi Krevat watched the news of Monday night's shooting at Michigan State in horror.
"I actually experienced what I think was a little PTSD because I started to cry and I couldn't stop crying for a really long time," said Krevat.
The Apex mother of three is referring to the 2019 UNC-Charlotte shooting, in which her son was on-campus. In that attack, two students were killed and four others injured, including a friend of her son's.
"I was really upset. I was terrified for my son. I just wanted to be there and hold him and see him and I couldn't do it," Krevat recalled.
Alongside her daughter, Krevat joined Moms Demand Action following the 2018 Parkland shooting, in which 17 people were killed and seven more injured at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
"It's really up to lawmakers to pass the correct gun bills and for all gun owners to practice safe storage," said Krevat, who went to the State Legislature Tuesday afternoon to directly address lawmakers.
"I think we need to get at the root cause, but that's when you have a sickness, you want to address the root cause, but that doesn't mean you don't also taking an Ibuprofen. So those additional safety measures like additional police on campus, I think are valid and a good step. But I think we have to accept and understand those are addressing the symptoms," said NC State freshman Lucy Grindstaff.
According to The Gun Violence Archive, Monday night's shooting, in which a gunman shot and killed three students and injured five more, was the 67th mass shooting in the United States this year.
"Concern and disappointment. It honestly sucks a lot of hope from me that things will improve because things like this have been happening and it seems like they will continue to keep happening. And I don't know what, what can change, what will change, what will give," said Grindstaff.
"I'm sure it's like a collective matter. I mean, we're all on edge. I mean, there's been a couple of deaths here and safety comes into question from (an) mental and physical (aspect)," added freshman Jackson Evans.
Both Grindstaff and Evans credited the university for highlighting available mental health resources, including the upcoming Wellness Day, in which classes will be canceled.
Public universities, like UNC and NC State, are open campuses, a point UNC-Chapel Hill Director of Emergency Management and Planning Darrell Jeter stresses to students.
"It's a balance of behaviors as well as equipment that we have installed, we look at what's appropriate door locks, even monitoring system that we may need to have, or options for us to even utilize a notification in the moment if someone witnesses access that should not be allowed," said Jeter.
Tuesday, UNC-Chapel Hill conducted a pre-planned siren test, part of its notification system.
"We want them to know before something actually happens what the tone is like so they can get acquainted with those emergency notifications," said Jeter.
Both UNC and NC State have emergency call boxes across campuses, and digital alerts to alert the campus communities of any crime.
"Every freshman student or transfer student who is new to UNC is required to go through what we call our Carolina Ready training session," said Jeter.
They also each have their own police departments, which work collaboratively with neighboring agencies in Raleigh and Chapel Hill, respectively.
What we know about the Michigan State mass shooting victims
