We Are...

Delta State...

If you have ever read this trainwreck of a blog,

you know that I have referenced many times that 

I work at a place that I have often referred to as...

Alluvial Flood Plain State...

A delta is referred at as an alluvial flood plain... 

just a goofy play on words...

Anyhoo...

We are a small four-year regional university that does what it does very well.  We provide a quality education.

We aren't a research institution... you will never confuse us with 

Ole Miss or Mississippi State...

... but one employer told me recently that he has more employees from our school than he does Ole Miss and State combined...

That says something...

Last Monday, I get up... get dressed... go to work... just like I have any number of times over the past 327 years that I have worked at this institution... (I really haven't worked here THAT long... but I tend to take artistic license with facts...)

... but I digress.

At some point, I was getting ready to step down the hallway and harass some colleagues... I feel that in my self-appointed position as 'morale officer,' this is my job.

Just before I leave my office, I hear the sound of a siren on a police car... squealing tires... and someone leaving at a great rate of speed...  From time to time we hear sirens... but tend to not hear the squealing tires and such...

I step out into the hallway... and I see this woman that I know that works downstairs in the dean's office...

'we are under lock-down... there's an active shooter on campus'...

"Oh Fuck...!!!!" I thought...

I went back to my office... checked status through the campus police dept... no alert had been posted... I dashed upstairs to my division chair's office and ask him if we are under 'lock down...'

"I don't know... let  me find out..."

then he looks at me and says...

"Yes!!!"

"there has been a shooting..."

... and the building where the shooting occurred 

was right next door to our building.

"that's all we know right now..."

Well... if you don't know me, I am a 'care-giver'... I immediately went backdown to the our office suite... locked out suite doors... and told everyone what I knew was going down...

We could already hear more and more sirens outside the building...  things were getting tense.  I told everyone in our suite that I was locking the door... don't let anyone in without identifying them... and that I was going to make sure that class rooms were notified...

So I'm off and down the hallway... classrooms secured... doors locked... I knocked on the doors of classrooms where i knew division colleagues were teaching to make sure they were notified...  and I head back towards our suite..

I see this young fellow sitting on a sofa... just reading away... and I know he hasn't a clue as to what is going on... so I go to him... calmly tell him that he needs to get his stuff and come with me... we weren't safe right now.

... so he and I are off heading towards safety... we get back into the locked down suite... and I get a text message that the suspect is a student...

... and then I look at this kid that I just brought into our locked-down suite... and think... 

"I don't know this guy..."

"OH FUCK!!!!!!!"

"Did I just let the shooter into our safe haven?!?!?!"

... so I am going from colleague to colleague...

"Do YOU know this guy?!?!?!?!"

... and no one... not a SOUL knows him...

so I quietly go to my office... call my chair and ask if there are 

any law enforcement in  our building yet?

Of course, by this time, the campus is swarming with local police... county sheriff deputies, Mississippi Highway Patrol SWAT, and SWAT from another county.

I tell him that I need some officers to come and check out an individual... that I may have just put my entire suite at risk by simply looking out for the safety of a student.

He tells me help is on the way...  I am expecting two... maybe three officers...

something like this...

... and, instead, I get something that looks like this...

I open  the door to motion for them to come where I am... 

wrong move... 

I have more barrels pointed at me that I can even count.

I identify myself... show them where the unknown student is...

and they proceed to scare about 20 years of life out of this poor kid.  I feel so bad... so responsible for what he endured...

But I couldn't take a chance.

my school...

So, there was a shooting on our campus... a professor was 

murdered by another professor.

All kinds of lurid stories have been bantered around as to what may have been behind the actions of the shooter.

Honestly, I don't know...

Since it was initially believed that the shooter was a student...

that he or she could still be on campus.

Our building was one of those that was secured and locked down.

I was getting text messages from former students that are now working and employed that were distressed because the story going around one business was that I was the one who had been killed.

I have to tell you that I was so honored by the number of former students that were worried about their past professors and school.

Law Enforcement was phenomenal.

They erred on the side of protecting us.

I saw scared students... some upset.

I love my students... I love my kids.

There are plenty of stories and links out there that can

be searched for more information on this event.

I don't really apologize for the humorous slant to this

story... it wasn't really funny...

... but I have a tendency to put people at ease...

That's what I do...

We are...

Delta State...

~shoes~