Last week, University students experienced two different shelter-in-place orders. Feb. 25, students received a University Emergency Alert to shelter-in-place as a known gang affiliate fled police on foot following a car accident near Alderman and McCormick road. Then, two days later, students received another shelter-in-place alert because of an active attacker with a knife. Both of these alerts, which happened during the academic day, came as students found themselves in a variety of places — dormitories, lecture halls, the basement of the AFC and University dining spaces.
The shelter-in-place order Feb. 25 lasted nearly five hours, from around 9 a.m. to around 2 p.m., while the order Feb. 27 lasted from around 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. While no University students were hurt during either shelter-in-place order, the uncertainty and abruptness of these email and text alerts created confusion and worry for some students.
The reactions of students who were on Central Grounds differed from those of students who were still at home. First-year College student Annie Genovese found herself in the Rookie’s line at Clark Library when a faculty member told everyone to shelter in place and lock the doors. Luckily, she said the Rookie’s workers offered shelter behind the counter as they waited for the order to be lifted. Genovese saw that the alert said the suspect was on Alderman and McCormick Road and she thought that being behind the coffee counter would be safest.
“The first two or three hours we were super nervous. We had the lights off, and we started freaking out,” Genovese said. “Once we got notification that he had started to leave Grounds we were all able to kind of relax a little bit more.”
Genovese also noted that once some of the anxiety dissipated, community members in the space worked to support each other.
“The Rookie’s workers were so sweet and made the experience so much better, offering us so many lattes and cookies,” Genovese said.
First-year College student Skylar Carr also found community during these stressful alerts. While she was in her dormitory Tuesday and able to shelter-in-place with her roommate, she found herself in a very different situation Thursday, when the alert came while she was in class. She noticed that the overall environment and mood was not as calm when she was in a physical classroom setting.
“We were just sitting in the classroom with lights out and a kid was throwing up next to me. Everyone was anxious,” Carr said. “But I think it was a very good community bonding moment. All of the groups I'm in were texting me asking if everyone was ok and if I needed to talk to anyone.”
While some students received these alerts while in class, others were not even awake when the first alert was sent at 9:18 a.m.
First-year College student Eloise Diffley woke up to the alerts, and she was confused but did not think much beyond deciding to stay home until orders were lifted. While there were many notifications, including continuous emergency alerts and friends checking in, she tried to spend the day reading and talking with her parents.
“I was just really trying not to think about it, and I didn’t see another person until 2 p.m.,” Diffley said.
Many third and fourth-year students felt as if they were reliving memories from the shooting Nov. 13, 2022, which left the University on lockdown for 12 hours. Third-year College student Colin Knaupp acknowledges that the amount of misinformation being spread on social media, either Yik Yak or group chat, made it challenging to understand what was truly happening. Thursday, Knaupp was in 1515 with friends and heard that multiple people had been stabbed via a rumor spread from someone’s group chat.
“Yik Yak, group chats and any kind of interpersonal communication really served, for some people, as a place of comfort, but it also served as a kind of a panic factor,” Knaupp said. “I would just read my phone, hoping that it wasn't anything similar to what happened in 2022, but other people open their phone to post a funny Yik Yak.”
Third-year Engineering student Zoe Benton said that during both emergencies, she tried to avoid spreading misinformation to friends and family.
“I [tried] to only report what I knew to be true based on the information that I had … because there's going to be people who misunderstand something and say, ‘I think this person is here,’ and that just causes fear in people,” Benton said.
Benton also said that she felt sad realizing she knew how to navigate emergencies relating to threats on Grounds due to her experience during the shooting in 2022.
“I shouldn't have to know how to navigate that, but honestly, I did,” Benton said. “And I'm glad that I now have that skill, even though it comes from a [bad] situation.”
Following these events, University officials sent several emails to the student body offering support and resources, such as the University’s Counseling and Psychological Services and Care and Support Services — both of which offer 24/7 urgent support for students who might be feeling unsettled by the alerts.
The suspect on Grounds who caused the University to issue the first shelter-in-place directive is still at large, but University and Charlottesville police believed him to have left Grounds and surrounding areas before the order was lifted. The attacker involved in the stabbing Feb. 27 was arrested within about an hour, after which the shelter-in-place order was lifted. The victim, who was confirmed unaffiliated with the University, was still in critical condition as of Feb. 28.
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