![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-10-03-17-false-alarm-1.jpg\")
If I am honest with myself, my survival skills are severely lacking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the events of last Sunday, I have realized that if a shooting really occurred, I would be one crispy, bullet-riddled individual. As I was going for a walk that fateful afternoon, contentedly oblivious as I listened to my music, a friend motioned for me to take off my headphones, informing me that armed policemen were swarming the library.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the alarming nature of this news, I felt no alarm, only a mild curiosity. Others around me were filming on their phones, and after a moment of silence, I continued my walk. Nothing felt all that serious. Moments later, I was again motioned to take off my headphones and informed to stay away from the library, the tone more urgent, but again I just watched curiously as I waited for someone to figure out what was going on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Police cars were flashing all around and an officer was patrolling the grass, but surely if this was serious, there would be more alarm, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou guys need to get in your dorms right now,\u201d a student inside Lincoln ordered, which seemed to cement the reality of the situation. But even then, I was wondering about the necessity of it all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Individuals scattered about me and disappeared into their dorms, and I was left alone, walking slowly away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Could I still get a walk in if I just went off campus? My thoughts were interrupted when a student came up to me, with the same dazed and confused look on his face, aksing if I knew what was occurring. After some back and forth, it turned out he knew more than I did, and the word \u201cshooter\u201d was introduced into the growing theory, but I still felt almost no sense of alarm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou should go to your dorm!\u201d a friend yelled to me from his second-story window, the tone of urgency slightly awakening me as I tried to summon the fear needed to change my trajectory. But then other voices started calling to me, \u201cWhat\u2019s going on? Do you know what\u2019s happening?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bewildered and not knowing which windows were addressing me now, I tried to reply logically without claiming anything I did not know for certain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But like two old ladies gossiping from their balcony trellis, the situation felt commonplace, like swapping news about a sports event, not a school shooter. Slowly, however, I began to head to my dorm on the other side of campus. Walking through the crowd, I saw people were still picnicking on the quad, the vibes still high and the Spikeball still out. Was anything actually happening?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then the alarms started to go off. Heads looked up, and then down at their phones, and I began to run, but like a bunch of huddled sheep, no one seemed to be moving with me. Conflicted and unsure if I was making too much of it all, I turned around and informed those on the sidewalk that maybe, possibly, they should also go to their dorms as well. Then I finally booked it back to my room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As we all know, there was no shooter; it was all a hoax. I could have gone on my walk, and Spikeball could have gone on uninterrupted. But looking back, I cannot help but wish I had acted with more wisdom. However, I understand why I, and many others, did not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How many of us have nonchalantly hidden under our desks as a \u201cshooter\u201d supposedly roamed the building? How many of us have slowly slipped on our slippers in the middle of the night as our alarms screamed at us that fire and brimstone were upon us? When did \u201calarms\u201d become synonymous with unnecessary inconveniences?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How can schools put safety first without numbing their students with constant cries of a nonexistent \u201cwolf?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I do not have the answers. I am glad I did not have to put my survival skills to the test last Sunday, but I am left unsettled. No doubt, many of us will experience similar events in the future, and I only pray that I will have learned to use sound judgment by then, knowing that someday the false alarm might just be true.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fake threats numb us to real danger<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[215],"tags":[80,32,29],"class_list":["post-1025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinions","tag-julia-kramer","tag-issue-2025-10-03","tag-perspectives"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-10-03-17-false-alarm-1.jpg",907,904,false],"thumbnail":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-10-03-17-false-alarm-1.jpg",150,150,false],"medium":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-10-03-17-false-alarm-1.jpg",300,300,false],"medium_large":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-10-03-17-false-alarm-1.jpg",768,765,false],"large":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-10-03-17-false-alarm-1.jpg",907,904,false],"1536x1536":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-10-03-17-false-alarm-1.jpg",907,904,false],"2048x2048":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-10-03-17-false-alarm-1.jpg",907,904,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Ian Schartner","author_link":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/author\/schartnerij23\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Fake threats numb us to real danger","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1025"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1025\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1958,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1025\/revisions\/1958"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}