UNLV Strong

You see the news and watch the devastation of active shooters on college campuses everywhere. I’m a graduate student at UNLV for a Masters of Social Work. I have a year and a half left for my program and this is my first semester with my internship. It was an ordinary day December 6th, 2023 when I arrived at UNLV Campus after being dropped off by my ride. I walked from the Student Union and Beam Hall towards my Office Building across from the campus by Thomas and Mack Center. I was exhausted and still recovering from a cold that I was battling for two weeks. I was finally feeling 100 percent symptom free to go into my office where I work with Veterans who help other veterans transitioning from being a soldier to Civilian life.

Due to that cold my life's schedule and plan for final exams was screwed up. Originally I would have been at my Internship on Monday and Tuesday and then training at the Student Union for Rise University from 10am-2pm with my other graduate cohort members. Instead I caught a cold after thanksgiving break and I finally came back to the office December 6th, 2023 to make up hours due to being sick. The day started off with just working on catching up with assignments and talking with my boss about life in general and being offered a position at my internship as a team lead which I accepted gratefully. Around 11am I was in a zoom meeting with my entire team and boss with our Supervisor it was a great meeting celebrating the end of the semester and finishing up strong. At the end of the meeting around 11:45 am I began to prepare to walk to the Student Union to pick up lunch at Panda Express.

By 11:57am we got the first text, email, and office phone alert about an active shooter on UNLV Campus by the BEH (Beam Hall) and Student Union. I was in such a good mood that the shock clouded my judgment. My whole team and I thought, is this real? Before we saw students running towards Thomas and Mack Center to evacuate. At that time my team started to leave and I was nervous because I was dropped off my ride and it would take them at least an hour to come get me.

I started calling them as I packed up my stuff but my Boss offered to take me home instead. I was hesitant but by the third alert I agreed and left with him quickly out of the building seeing all the students evacuating. Run, Fight, Hide something that terrified me to see constantly on my text and emails. I didn’t hear the gunshots but my anxiety was through the roof but I can’t mentally tell myself not to panic to get to safety. My boss was parked in the faculty parking lot so it took only a few minutes to quickly get into his truck and get off campus. I realized how real it was when as my boss was driving us off campus we saw all the police and ambulances driving towards the campus and away from us.

My phone buzzing with text messages from my team, my friends, and my classmates. My ride well my mom knew I was coming home but had no idea what was happening because the parents were not being alerted. During the drive my boss answered his phone and the other team members were in lockdown at our building. By the time I arrived at my house the entire school was on lockdown. We found out that the shooter was by the Student Union and I was being texted by my friends who were at that training and in the Student Union on lockdown.

I walked into my house and by the time I got to the kitchen the emotions began to fill me. Before I continued a year before this incident I was in the Student Union eating at Panda Express and studying. One minute everything was okay and the next minute I was tapped on the shoulder and was told to evacuate the building by officers and they didn’t say why. I quickly got out but the building smelt weird like something was burning. I got out of the building and saw no one else was evacuating but us.

I was with a group of thirty or more students and we had no idea what was going on. By the time we got the alert on our phones that there was a bomb threat. No one else on the campus knew about it so when the alert came they believed it was a joke. I ran to Thomas and Mack center to be picked up and I went home. That was the first time I was evacuated off of the campus of UNLV. UNLV is an open campus. Tourists, homeless, students, and faculty can come onto that campus for food, classes, shopping, activities, and more. I have seen the same homeless individuals for the past four years of my life at that Campus and it worried me about safety the minute I started at UNLV and I hope now that will change everything.

The second time I was evacuated off of UNLV campus was December 6th, 2023. My mom and I hugged as soon as I got into the house. I was sobbing as I explained to her that there was an active shooter on campus. My mom who was recovering from her cold that she got from me was talking about how I was evacuated off campus due to that bomb threat. Now I was evacuated off of the campus due to the active shooter. She stated that God or someone was watching over me and kept me safe that day.

We kept watching the alerts and watched the news. My friends who were in lock down at the student union said they heard more than one set of gunshots and someone tried to break into the room they were in for the event. While the other shooter was in the BEH. Rumors were spreading that there was more than one shooter and more casualties than what the police were saying and I believed it. I was a total wreck during the hours of watching the news and waiting to know if my friends were able to get off campus. I felt so guilty because I should have been there with them but a cold prevented that, and I had some kind of guardian angel watching over me and protecting me. 
It took me a week or so to accept that Survivors Guilt is real and that I need to accept it if it wasn’t for my cold.

I would have been in the Student Union in lockdown terrified while listening to gunshots and praying to get out alive. I also feel that I was lucky being with the Veterans at my office. And that my boss is a retired Airfare Veteran who was so amazing and kind enough to bring me home. It was a risk what we did but we both got off of campus and got away before the worst happened. I don’t know why anyone would consider putting students and faculty in danger because of not getting a job on campus?

Though we are not sure what the motive of the shooter was. I just cannot believe what happened that a place I felt was my second home has been shattered. My whole routine at campus takes me to the Student Union, Beam Hall, and my office building everyday. I know now that I am not safe anymore on that campus and I’m terrified to go back for my classes in the spring especially because one of my classes is at Beam Hall where the shooting started.

I don’t know if I will ever truly feel safe at UNLV again but I have another year and a half left before graduating. My mom is terrified for me to go back and cannot wait for me to graduate and never go back to UNLV again. If I pursue another degree it will be anywhere else. It’s so hard because I got my Bachelors at UNLV and now my Masters in Social Work. I fear that going back in Spring will trigger my Survivors Guilt again but I’ve come this far and I am not giving up. I will finish my degree.

But I pray for the victims whose lives were lost and the students who witnessed and heard the gunshots. To those who were in lockdown on campus waiting and praying to live. I pray that they can heal from this trauma and that we will all get through this and that this will help make UNLV a closed campus to only students and faculty but also switch to more hybrid and online classes for the sake of the safety of students and faculty at UNLV.