Washington University Police Department (WUPD) participated in an active threat training exercise on January 7 that involved a realistic on-campus shooter scenario. ( Sydney Tran | Editor-in-Chief )

When WashU junior Soma Amaechina received a call from her mom saying there had been a shooting on Brown University’s campus, Amaechina said she was “shocked.” She lives about 15 minutes away from the Brown University campus, her mom works there, and several of her friends attend the university. Although her loved ones are safe, she described the experience as a “wake-up call” that forced her to confront the possibility that she or someone close to her could experience a mass shooting. 

“It felt a lot more real. Nothing like that has ever happened before in Rhode Island, [and] this was something that was happening in my hometown,” Amaechina said. “I’m always on Thayer Street. People from my middle school and my high school go to that street all the time. My siblings could have been there. Anyone could have been there. That was just really frightening.”

The shooting at Brown occurred on Dec. 13, when a gunman opened fire inside an engineering building on campus, killing two students and injuring nine others. The victims were attending a final exam review session for an economics class at the time of the shooting. The suspect, 48-year-old Claudio Neves Valente, attended the university from 2000 to 2001. 

The Brown shooting is one of hundreds of shootings at U.S. schools over the past few decades. In April, a 20-year-old student at Florida State University opened fire, killing two people and wounding six others, and in 2022, a student at the University of Virginia killed three student-athletes and wounded two more. 

Amaechina told Student Life that she thinks many people have become desensitized to school shootings because of how often they occur, but emphasized the importance of trying not to forget about them. 

“I think the whole situation [at Brown] got swept away kind of fast. Because it didn’t happen here, it just became one of the many events that [have] been happening, with ICE and all of the police brutality also going on. Just trying not to push it aside and forget about it is important because forgetting about it is how it happens again,” Amaechina said.

Julia Fleckman, an associate professor at the School of Public Health with expertise in firearm violence prevention, said that when she is teaching, she sometimes finds herself thinking about where exits are in a classroom and what she would do if a shooter opened fire. 

“Those are things, psychologically, we should not be having to process. And yet, here we are,” she said. 

A few weeks before the shooting at Brown, a shooter opened fire at the Westfield Valley Fair mall near where senior Joyce Tan lives in San Jose, California. Tan said that one of her close friends was shopping at the mall when the shooting happened, and that she also has several friends who are Brown University students. Tan noted that in the past, she had felt somewhat desensitized to mass shootings in the U.S., but learning that friends were close to both incidents led her to reflect on how easily she herself could experience a shooting. 

Although Tan loves to travel and enjoyed studying abroad in Hong Kong last spring, she never previously considered moving abroad permanently because her friends and family are in the U.S. However, since the shootings at Brown and at the Westfield Valley Fair mall, she has begun to reconsider whether she would do so. 

“I don’t know, seriously, if I would actually do those things, but I just never really thought about it before until recently,” she said. “Recent events have made me start thinking, ‘Do I want to be here? What is holding me here?’

Though she fears how common mass shootings are in the U.S., Tan said she generally feels safe on WashU’s campus and believes it to be safer than certain similar schools. She came to this conclusion after visiting friends who attend Brown and the University of Pennsylvania over fall break last semester. 

“You would only wander upon the inside of WashU’s campus if you are trying to go there. With Penn and Brown, there [are] streets running through [their campuses],” Tan said. You might not even be wanting to go to Brown or Penn, but you end up walking through or driving through the campus, and I feel like that just kind of invites strangers [and] random people.” 

Sophomore Alan Velasco said that he was particularly upset about the Brown shooting since he knows people who attend the university.

“I was really saddened by the whole thing, and then I started to get worried,” Velasco said. “I do know people who attend that institution, so I texted them throughout the entire time, and I was looking at their locations. It was very worrisome and also tiresome, because that experience is something they shouldn’t have to have.”

Since the shooting at Brown, WashU’s administration has not addressed the incident. Several students told Student Life they wish the administration had done so.

“I think they should have addressed it and just said, ‘Hey, there’s no immediate threat,’” Velasco said. “Or, ‘You guys shouldn’t be worried, we’re gonna do some more security measures.’”

Julie Flory, Vice Chancellor for University Marketing and Communications, explained the University’s decision not to issue a statement addressing the Brown shooting in a statement to Student Life. 

“We generally do not issue statements about matters that are not directly related to the core function of the University,” she wrote. 

In many school shooting cases, gunmen are young adults. According to a 2024 study conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins and the University of Arizona, nearly two-thirds of school shooters are under the age of 17. Fleckman said this may be due to ongoing developmental changes during adolescence and early adulthood.

“When you’re young, you’re still learning how to have things like impulse control, sound decision-making processes. You’re still learning and growing. And when you aren’t in a safe and supportive environment in which to do that, both at home and at school, and you have access to firearms, things happen. And that’s one reason why we see a large amount of school shootings,” she said. 

In regard to preventing school shootings, Fleckman said recent research suggests that increased police presence or school resource officers on campus, as well as more punitive measures for students, are not very effective at reducing school shootings.

Instead, she said meaningful prevention may require addressing broader cultural and political norms in the U.S. Fleckman pointed to factors that distinguish the U.S. from other countries with significantly fewer mass shootings — including access to firearms, a cultural embrace of guns, and the belief that ownership of the weapons is a basic right.  

Fleckman said that many aspects of school shootings are still not well understood, in part because federal funding for firearm injury prevention research was very restricted for over two decades. She emphasized that additional research is critical to prevent mass and school shootings. 

Salma Abdalla, assistant professor at the School of Public Health and co-director for the Global Health Futures Research Network, has researched how mass trauma impacts communities and larger populations. 

“We looked into an analysis in six communities: Dayton, El Paso, Parkland, Pittsburgh, San Bernardino, and Virginia Beach, following mass shootings,” Abdalla said. “We found that post-traumatic stress disorder prevalence in them was about 24% in the past year, about 9% in the past month — which is way higher than the national average. The average, usually in the U.S., is about 2 to 3% of people who have PTSD.”

Abdalla said that, while it is natural for individuals to want to be educated about a traumatic event, spending too much time consuming media about it could also be detrimental.

“High exposure to social media, or other types of media about a specific mass shooting or other traumatic events, may exacerbate the mental health impact,” Abdalla said. “What I would say to people is that it is very understandable that you would want to get some information about [an event like this]. But continuing to just keep looking, especially if you’re seeing visuals of the event itself, actually exacerbates the negative mental health effects.”

There are a number of organizations and systems in place at WashU that can support students who are struggling with anxiety or fear in relation to these types of mass shootings. 

Jessica Dyer, director of WashU Cares, wrote in a statement to Student Life that WashU Cares is available to support students who may be struggling with adjusting back to campus after the shooting at Brown. 

“WashU Cares is available to all full-time Danforth students who may be seeking resources for support,” Dyer wrote. “Our office meets with students to talk about resources that may be most helpful for their situation. While we don’t provide direct counseling ourselves, we can offer information about mental health resources on campus (CCPS, Timely care, Let’s Talk) and information about off-campus supports (finding therapy or support groups).”

John Dunkle, interim director of the Center for Counseling & Psychological Services (CCPS), said that students are encouraged to reach out for support. 

“Within our services, we have different options,” Dunkle said. “In addition to individual and group counseling, we have Let’s Talk, which is a program where we have staff strategically placed across the campus. Students can stop in and just talk to a staff member from our department. So it feels a little bit less formal than coming to the Counseling Center. [We also have] Timely Care, which is available to students. They can reach out there and talk to somebody at all times of day and night.” 

Additionally, Dunkle said that, generally, one of the best things campuses can do to prepare for these types of crises is to have detailed emergency response plans in place. He pointed out that during the shootings at Northern Illinois University, they had an emergency response plan in place. 

“Back in 2008, when the tragic shootings happened at Northern Illinois University, I was working at Northwestern University,” Dunkle said. “Because I was so close, I was one of many hundreds of staff who went out to Northern to help. I saw firsthand what schools can do, and they did a wonderful job in a very difficult situation and tragedy.”

Washington University Police Department (WUPD) hosted an active threat training on Jan. 7, which, unlike past years, featured a medical component where officers were taught how to treat wounded victims.

Chief of Police Angela Coonce told Student Life that WUPD monitors a variety of crises happening both nationally and globally.

“WashU PD actively monitors threats at other colleges and universities, like the recent Brown University incident,” Coonce wrote. “We also monitor other events such as the Bondi Beach tragedy. Preventing an active threat on campus is the priority. We have an experienced detective assigned to conduct threat assessments, and we work with campus partners across the University as a team when conducting threat assessment and threat management.”

Chet Hunter, associate director of WashU’s Emergency Management, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.