After all the phone calls and Twitter alerts and whirlybirds have subsided, it appears that what happened was this:
Some student at Ball State (but we don't know who) yelled the word "Gun!" on campus...
...and the entire northern half of the state collectively lost continence.
*golf clap*
The highlight for me is the surreal film footage of cops with patrol carbines clearing what appears to be a large lobby or atrium with the balcony above teeming with kids peering over, grabbing footage with their phones: Delta House right upstairs from the Green Zone.
Splendid performance awards to all students, faculty, law enforcement, government, and media involved. I'm sure nobody took note of the massively disproportionate response for future reference.
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Lets see, you want to rob a bank? Just have some one shout "GUN" at a school on the other side of town.
ReplyDeleteGood thing it didn't happen during a Zombie Hunt, or whatever those darned kids are calling it these days. There would have been dozens of bullet ridden students, Nerf guns clutched in cold dead fingers.
ReplyDeleteThankfully no one was carrying a black cell phone or similar dangerous object in his/her hand whilst the authorities were clearing the buildings.
ReplyDeleteHalloween, U. of Richmond, 1974.
ReplyDeleteBuddy Bill, a Civil War reenactor, wore Federal uniform and lent me his Confederate one. He carried a carbine on a sling and I wore a Colt 1860 on my belt.
Campus cop's only interest was that we had no powder or caps. "Not a good mix with beer." Once he saw we had neither he wandered off to check out the co-eds.
I miss living in a free country.
I have a picture in my head of hundreds of studi staring at smart phones and tweeting to their peeps being hit in the back of the head with clubs and robbed.
ReplyDeleteGerry
Later, when asked for comment, Cleetus said, "To be honest, at the time, I thought for sure the guy said 'Gun!' But it could have been 'Gum!' Or maybe 'Run!' I can't be sure now."
ReplyDeletejf
Back in the 1980s when I was a grad student, I earned my living teaching freshman Chemistry labs. Over 4 years, 8 semesters, my final lab exam was interrupted by bomb scares/fire alarms four times.
ReplyDeleteI'd remind the kids they were still "taking the exam" and not to access any study materials while we exited the building and milled about outside waiting for the all clear, to return and finish.
A 50% disruption rate by overstressed 18 year olds or their willing friends for final exams struck me as a bit high.
Now that there will be a shelter in place enforced by armed officers, I wonder if the rate will go up or down? And will TAs and profs simply lock the exits and tell their kiddos to continue with the exams?
"[C]ops with patrol carbines clearing what appears to be a large lobby or atrium with the balcony above teeming with kids peering over, grabbing footage with their phones."
ReplyDeleteGee. I was picturing a scene from the Parallel-Simultaneous-Scenes play, Tamara which played for a couple of years in the American Legion Hall near the Hollywood Bowl. Some actor slipping quietly and inobtrusively against the wall to overhear someone's conversation with dozens of spectators clustered behind him, standing around like they were waiting, not stealthy at all.