Safe

Yesterday was a scary day on campus! First, for those that may not know, my office is a couple miles removed from main campus (I'm sandwiched between Upper Arlington and Grandview out with the cows). So if you hear about something happening at OSU, it's very likely I'm perfectly safe. That means that I was never in any danger (or even perceived danger) yesterday at all. But, all our phones buzzed with a Buckeye Alert just before 10am that said there was an active shooter on campus and gave his location as near Watts Hall. While that is nowhere near me, I have many friends with offices in that area since it is smack in the middle of the Engineering corridor. All of OSU went on lockdown (at which I sucked and snuck out to pee after a while - so I will definitely be the weak link if there is ever a real emergency way out here). We were on lockdown for a few hours while various stories (nearly all of which turned out to be false) circulated. My coworkers and I all sat together and listened to the police scanner and madly searched the internet for news. Just before noon, the Alert was lifted and our department chair sent us all home.
(Interesting side note in case of future emergency: Thank you to everyone who called and texted to make sure I was OK! I think the phone systems must have overloaded, because no calls came through until a couple hours later. But all texts came through immediately. So, if you are ever in an emergency situation: text, don't call! My department chair survived Hurricane Katrina and said the same thing happened then.)

It turns out there was never an active shooter or any guns involved. A crazed student drove his car into a crowd of people on the sidewalk and got out and started slashing at them with a knife. An OSU police officer responded in under a minute and had to shoot and kill the attacker after he refused to put his knife down. So the entire event took less than a couple minutes and no one was killed, other than the attacker. But it was very scary and traumatic for a number of my friends in the area. More than one of them actually saw the attacker killed and his body laying there from their office windows. The police then came into the buildings, guns drawn, and had everyone leave so they could sweep the buildings to make sure they were safe. While necessary, that was pretty scary for them! Most didn't have coats, purses, keys, etc. So they had to stand out in the cold for hours while the buildings were investigated. So, it was a very long, exhausting, traumatic day for most employees in Engineering. In fact, all the action went down EXACTLY where they are moving my department in a few years. I will relish my last 3-4 years out here on west campus!

I told Wm what happened when he got home from school, because I know he'll hear about it. I focused on the fact that neither I, nor even our friends at the scene, were ever in real danger because the police responded so quickly and so well. I also stressed that no one was killed and that this is a very rare event. Wm was sad that it happened, but was, as usual, unfazed. His school had actually had indoor recess just to keep the kids inside while all of this unfolded, and Wm had no idea why. He was like, "waaaaait...is this why we had to have indoor recess?" He was happy to know his school is keeping him safe!

And, to lighten the mood, here are the Boys (including the furry one) playing cards: