By Karianne McKenna 
Shootings at Utah Valley University and Evergreen High School in Colorado on Sept. 10 fueled a recent wave of media coverage on gun violence at U.S. campuses. 

Embedded into legitimate reports of violence have been approximately 20 false active shooter threats toward college campuses throughout the country. On Sept. 2, the University of Maryland received its own. Unfortunately, most students were not disturbed by the news because of the growing consistency of the threats.

“It’s a little bit like the boy who cried wolf, and you never know which threat is going to be real or not,”  freshman electrical engineering major Peyton Erb said. 

With social media and news platforms constantly feeding information to the public, the content becomes lost in a sea of headlines or glossed over by those who come across it. Erb shared that he forgets stories involving gun violence about ten minutes after seeing them, due to other media he is consuming. 

“I usually go to Google, click on the news tab, scroll and look at it for a while. It does [stay on my mind] for a bit before I forget about it,” Erb said.

However, UMD works to keep every student informed about crimes that occur both on campus and in surrounding areas so that students’ initial exposure to the situation is never through social media or a news headline.

Regarding the false active shooter report, the “UMD Alerts” email provided several resources for students to access further information or support, if need be. Freshman mechanical engineering major Lakshmi Sundrum noted the disturbance of false shooter reports, but acknowledged the assistance that the university provides.

“I think UMD has done everything they can to curb gun violence on their campus, but it’s an issue larger than our administration can solve,” said Sundrum.

Despite both legitimate and fabricated reports of gun violence becoming more prevalent on school grounds, UMD works to ensure safety in their student body.

“I always know where the blue lights are and if I do walk somewhere alone, it’s in broad daylight in very public, busy places,” freshman history major Anjali Shah said.

With UMD’s population totaling approximately 40,000, it is rare that students are ever entirely alone. Even when the sun goes down, it’s common for people to still be scattered across campus, whether at the dining halls, the gym or McKeldin Mall. 

UMD offers hundreds of clubs and organizations for Terps to join. This extends opportunities to create safe communities on campus. 

Enrolled students are also offered “nite rides,” a shuttle service which runs from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. For those who choose to walk, UMD Police Auxiliary escorts are always an option to ensure student safety. 

“I just wish that when there was gun violence [on school grounds] there was more action and scrutiny by things larger than our school administration, so that changes could be made,” said Shah.

Featured Image: Blue light outside of the UMD Health Center. Photo by Karianne McKenna.