“Shelter in place immediately” flashed across our phone screens last Wednesday around 5:35 p.m. The cause? Case Western Reserve University staff and students were later briefed about a potential shooting on campus, suspected in Lot 1 and the Case Quad. According to President Eric W. Kaler’s follow-up communication, CWRU’s Division of Public Safety received reports of the shooting around 5:34 p.m. In those first 10 minutes, some students speculated that a student on campus was shot by the suspect, however, later news reports revealed that it was the police department who shot the suspect in the leg—information that was not included in the follow-up email or the Public Safety announcements. 

This situation was not unlike an event on April 11, in which a shelter-in-place order was issued for unknown reasons at 8:21 p.m. Nearly 20 minutes after this message the campus was informed that “one intruder, who is unaffiliated with the university, has been detained.” Though helpful information, we were still left in the dark about the situation at hand at the moment. Why was this individual detained? Where were they found by the police department? Were they armed? All these questions, and more, floated in the air as countless conspiracies were at the drawing board of many students’ text message chains. Around 9:04 p.m., the Division of Public Safety made the announcement that the detainee was an armed intruder located by the South Residential Village—after 40 minutes of pure confusion and distress. We did not receive an adequate response or follow-up to the situation afterwards.

CWRU has been witness to events like this in the past—with one in particular ending in tragedy. On May 9, 2003, the School of Management Building at CWRU, known better as the Peter B. Lewis Building, was under attack by a former MBA graduate at CWRU who shot and killed first year MBA student Norman Wallace and injured two professors in a hostage situation that lasted seven hours. Three years later, the CWRU Police Department was founded, and, since then, the administration has changed its response to safety threats on campus. 

However, given today’s technology and access, there has to be a better way to administer safety notices in 2025. 

In a 2023 report, it was recorded that Cleveland has a violent crime rate of 16.82 per 1,000 residents, in comparison to the national average of 4 per 1,000 residents. The inhabitants of Cleveland are far more likely to be at risk of crime than in other cities, so that makes having an efficient safety protocol that much more of a priority. 

The vagueness of the warning gave room for students and staff to assume the worst, especially with the shelter-in-place order coming just hours after the Annunciation Catholic Church shooting. Earlier that day, in Minnesota, two children were killed by open fire and many more were injured. This tragedy was on many students’ minds when the shelter-in-place order was issued, which could easily have fed into the panic felt at the time. While some students may have felt on edge already due to this national news, others may not have taken the warning seriously due to an insufficient amount of details. 

Students were not made aware of the facts of the situation soon enough. Although it is obvious that dispensing warnings without concrete evidence would not be preferred to the current system, not knowing enough information can create space for rumors. These rumors could cause a greater hysteria. We deserve transparency, at least in an appropriate manner, and the Division of Public Safety should be kept in the loop as much as the CWRU Police Department is. 

As students, we can be more aware for ourselves and others, too. Word of mouth can spread quickly. 

The delivery and content of information is critical, especially on a city-based campus. A picture is worth a thousand words, and so are speculations that can arise from a lack of information.