AN HONEST LOOK AT SCHOOL SHOOTINGS

As the MHCC community, we are far past the point of being able to still observe deadly shootings and active shooter situations as abstractly as we may wish to.

We have experienced plenty of incidents as a collective, whether that be smaller-scale acts of violence, or larger acts of premeditated mass assaulting. Easily the most urgent and close of these was the Reynolds High School attack by a student in 2014, which resulted in the wounding of a teacher and the killing of a fellow student.

It is easy to think that gun violence is an issue less pressing now than it may have been a few years ago, when incidents in the U.S. reached their peak in 2017 at nearly 15,700 deaths, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

The truth is, we are never too far from this menacing number. Last year, the count was more than 15,200 casualties, second only to the 2017 total.

Though operating practically fully online at the moment, thanks to concerns regarding the spread of COVID-19, Mt. Hood Community College very much still exists as also a physical institution, therefore always vulnerable to hostile interaction.

As recently as January, the illusion of a threat-free campus was broken when a now-identified individual made “verbal threats toward Public Safety and MHCC involving a weapon,” as described in a mass email sent by the Public Safety Manager Wayne Feagle shortly after the event.

Regarding potential improvements to campus security, Feagle simply said he “[Wished] we had funding for electronic locks” on doors. He also pointed out a helpful list of precautions already taken by MHCC that can be found at https://www.mhcc.edu/EmergencyPreparedness/.

Even so, the concern can remain a looming presence on campus. Posted on numerous walls all across the college is a colorful poster depicting cartoon characters in peril, their purpose being to help express the steps one should take in case of this specific kind of emergency. – “fighting back” against an attacker being what the printed PSA suggests an individual does, as a last resort.

While it is unfortunate that students and staff must constantly have this hypothetical peeking out at the, in the corner of their eye, it is of course even more so unfortunate to realize that, even just a few years ago, messages like these may not have even been considered to be necessary.

But the fear of some of the most frightening final minutes a person could have in their life is a monster we all face, in some capacity, every day, at our college.

One can only hope the climate changes for the better, moving forward.