Critical Minutes: Chapman Plans for Gun Violence

By Alexandra Davenport

The day before fall semester began in 2021, Chapman senior Alec Hays missed his last surf of summer. Instead of hitting the waves, he heard gunshots pop from the complex below his upstairs apartment. That left him sitting cramped in a closet with his roommate. For five hours.

Just one block south of Chapman’s campus. This was not a drill.

As mass shootings become increasingly more frequent in America, young people fear it could happen anywhere. Campuses like Chapman are discussing plans to best protect students. Photo illustration by Alexandra Davenport

“I never thought a shooter would be right at my door,” Hays said.

Students thought the same thing at Michigan State University. Where three were killed and five injured.

So did the students at the University of Idaho, where four students were stabbed to death near campus.

So did the three children and three staff members who were fatally shot at a Nashville elementary school by a former student.

Or the victims at the dance studio in Monterey Park, California, where 11 were killed by gunfire.

Like every young person who is supposed to feel safe at school or a public space meant just for fun.

More than 90 mass shootings have already occurred in America in 2023, and over 25 of those have happened on school grounds. It could happen anywhere, from elementary schools to college campuses, even at Chapman University.

So how well prepared is Chapman? It depends on who you ask.

An open campus prompts Chapman leadership to have an active shooter plan. But it hasn’t been tested — yet.

Since Chapman Public Safety relies on the Orange Police Department to respond in extreme incidents, the campus community must be prepared for the minutes until police arrive. Those critical minutes prove it takes a whole school approach to save lives.

But can campuses like Chapman really be prepared for the unimaginable?

“It’s also almost 100% unpreventable,” Jerry Price, dean of students, said. But they can try.

“The best way we can help in these situations is for each of us to be mindful and informed. To me, that means thinking about a plan in advance,” Price said.

But there’s no perfect plan for when terror knocks.

Ricardo Gonzalez, chief of Chapman Public Safety, confirmed a suggestion to university leadership about five years ago to arm Public Safety officers with guns. Price said there have even been past discussions to give officers access to guns in lockers.

It would alter the written mission policy of Public Safety on camps, Gonzalez said. But if it happened, “campus safety officers would have to be fully trained to be an armed public safety department.”

The Board of Trustees did not want to pursue arming officers because many felt strongly against it. Too much danger of a student getting hurt.

“The evidence that now’s the time isn’t powerful enough yet,” Price said.

But Price said decisions can change, just as they did at a Denver high school, when the local school board reinstated armed guards in March after two faculty members were shot.

At Chapman, Public Safety officers carry pepper spray and batons and patrol on bikes and in cars.

“The worst thing is a student getting shot, but a student getting shot by another Chapman staff member would be horrible,” Price said.

Price referenced the Feb. 13 killing of three students by an active shooter at Michigan State University (MSU).

“I think the best thing we learned is, if you do it well, it can go well. But even then, three people died,” Price said.

Though police responded quickly, MSU students were on lockdown for three hours until the suspect was located and arrested, according to a timeline of events. Multiple alerts were sent to students with updates and instructions to “run, hide, fight.”

The MSU campus shooting was yet another warning.

“The bad news is things happen. The good news is every time they happen, it gives us a chance to compare notes, to see what works, what doesn’t, so we learn from those situations,” Price said.

Campuses nationwide are re-evaluating active shooter training as it evolves. But in the moment, heart-jolting gunshots make decision-making difficult for those threatened.

In 2015, Chapman students in DeMille Hall had to shelter in place after a man was reported on campus with a handgun. The Orange Police responded and concluded that there was no threat found. But the fears from those students were real.

An accessible campus means anyone can walk on and pose a threat.

“A lot of it is random, and that’s part of the problem,” Denis Binder, professor of law at Chapman, said.

Binder published an academic article seven years ago on how to secure educational institutions. Students at elementary schools, high schools, and universities can all fall victim to an active shooter. Binder noted the incident at Northern Illinois University in 2008, when a former student opened fire, killing five and injuring 21.

Gonzalez noted that Public Safety is constantly evaluating its safety measures. He said there will be a new “Stop the Bleed” campaign to equip students with skills to survive an active shooter incident. In the meantime, students can fill out a form to request in-person active shooter training sessions. There is also an upcoming field training exercise planned for May with the Orange Police and Fire Deparments.

Binder said Chapman has mostly neighborhood community crime, as noted in Chapman’s annual Clery Statistics, which discloses campus crime statistics.

While large campuses cannot be run like high-security prisons, Binder said there is a need to worry about campus security and learn from other incidents.

“Unarmed security is not going to be effective in a very very quick timespan,” Binder said.

If unarmed Public Safety officers can’t handle active shooter incidents alone in real time, Price suggested students consider what they’d do if an active shooter threatened campus.

“Think about your classroom buildings, or where you live. If you’ve gotta report there’s an active shooter, where would you go?” Price said.

Alexis Reekie, student body president, said that students need to be aware of their school’s active shooter plan.

“We are having continued conversations with the administration to advocate for additional safety provisions at the university level,” Reekie said.

Reekie encouraged students to reach out to student government with suggestions as that dialogue continues.

Young people are growing more aware of the unexpected threat lurking anywhere from large crowds to school grounds.

Alumni Christian Grevin can still feel the horror of when a normal October night turned into a nightmare. In 2017, his older brother called his family in the night, yelling his goodbyes over the sounds of gunfire and a sea of screams.

The Grevin family sped four hours from Orange to Las Vegas, hoping to see their brother and son alive again. They arrived at the Route 91 Harvest Festival at 2 a.m., after an active shooter opened fire into a crowd of over 20,000 people from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.

Grevin said they found his brother, frozen in shock and covered in blood that wasn’t his own.

“We start to see ourselves in the victims and it being a possibility to happen to us,” Grevin said.

And Grevin, his parents, and his brother will feel trauma from that night for the rest of their lives.

Grevin, a political science major, felt compelled to research the emotions surrounding mass shootings for his senior research project. He was surprised to learn that that fear is preconditioned in young people in America, who live in the harrowing reality of frequent gun violence.

Over 50 people were killed in that Las Vegas shooting.

Grevin assessed the Chapman Survey on American Fears, which is collected annually based on worries. He found that young people show higher levels of fear surrounding mass shootings than older age groups.

He said one statistic from 2017 stood out: America accounts for 5% of the world’s population, yet 31% of the world’s mass shootings happen within its borders.

“There’s a lack of focus on it, in regards to our government and policies, and stuff actually being done about it,” Grevin added.

But Chapman leadership and the campus community can do something about it through training and action plans.

The plan for an active shooter is to notify the local police, which is about a mile from campus, and direct them to the location of the shooter. Students should run, hide, or taught in fall 2022, according to Gonzalez. fight and follow Panther Alert instructions.

Training can help students be ready for the worst and encourages a “whole community” approach. Anyone can play an important role in reducing the impacts of an active shooter.

As Hays, a public relations and advertising major, hid in his closet during the active shooter event near Chapman in 2021, he recognized how Chapman students like shooter event near Chapman in 2021, he recognized how Chapman students like him may not be as prepared as they should be.

“It was terrifying how unprepared and unaware I really was. I had no power in that situation,” Hays said.

To some, an active shooter coming to Chapman seems improbable. There’s mostly neighborhood crime in Orange and campus doesn’t feel dangerous every day.

“All that’s good news, but it is still not assurance that it won’t happen,” Price said.

The DeMille Hall shutdown in 2015 was a warning. The 2021 shooting a block from campus was a warning.

The MSU killings were a warning.

Other campuses of comparable size to Chapman, like the University of Redlands or the Claremont Colleges, also rely on local police and tell students to run, hide, fight. These colleges also offer active shooter training.

An active shooter training course,“Run, Hide, Fight,” is available to Chapman students upon request through an online form. It was last

And increased gun violence and school shootings in America are warnings.

To Hays, in his last year at Chapman, there has to be more than hiding and sending a prayer that it would be no one’s last day.

Hays added: “I hope Chapman can be ready and prepared for the unexpected so no one has to go through that.”