• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
A woman prays at a memorial where well-wishers placed mementos as hundreds of students and parents arrive for campus orientation Feb. 25 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. Attendance at the orientation was voluntary but it was being held in anticipation of the school officially reopening Feb. 28. (CNS photo/Angel Valentin, Reuters)

The day I thought a shooter was on campus

March 14, 2018
By Emily Rosenthal Alster
Filed Under: Commentary, Guest Commentary

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

“Mommy there’s a shooter I love you”

That was the text I sent my mother April 1, 2014, while I was a second-semester freshman in a management class at Stevenson University. I had been listening to a lecture in my university’s school of business when the PowerPoint screen went blank and flashed a notice for students and staff to shelter in place. An active shooter was on campus.

At first, we thought it was a joke – after all, it was April Fool’s Day. Seconds later, our cell phones buzzed with the text alert, solidifying the first message.

My mom left our home in a hurry when she got my text, driving so fast from our home 20 minutes away that she beat many of the first responders.

My sister kept me updated with what the television news was showing, including an overview of the building that the shooter was in – the same one where I sat at that moment on the fourth floor. I told her to always tell my year-old nephew I loved him.

The boy sitting next to me put his arm around my shoulders; I hadn’t noticed that I had silently started to cry.

I would lie if I said that I know how long it took for our door to be pushed in by the SWAT team, or that I remember descending four flights of stairs to the building’s exit. My memory picks up when I burst out onto the parking lot, into a path outlined by SWAT team members yelling at me to run to the campus’ community center.

Thankfully, it was a false alarm – two students hunting in the woods near campus. They were spotted with their BB guns, school security was notified and it triggered the appropriate response.

Most people do not understand that for those few hours, the threat was very real. For our parents, for our professors, for us.

In a split second, the place that we called home could have become one in a list of many: Sandy Hook, Oklahoma City, Columbine, the World Trade Center, the Boston Marathon and now Parkland. It only takes one person with malicious intent to uproot and destroy lives.

I will forever be grateful that we did not become a statistic that day. I pray for those affected by tragic events, with a little bit more of an understanding than the general public.

It was only once we were in the windowless hallways of the community center, the building’s perimeter guarded by the SWAT team, that we began to feel more secure. I found a spot, dropped my book bag (in a split-second decision I wore it as I evacuated, as a possible guard against bullets) and sank to the floor against a wall.

I started to pray.

When I looked back up, I noticed a girl sitting across from me, watching. She asked if praying made me feel better. I said that it did.

We were obviously not of each other’s social groups. In any other circumstances, we likely would not have been friends; but, today was different.

She told me that she was agnostic, and I shared my Catholic faith with her. She asked me to include her when I prayed today, and of course I agreed.

We spent the rest of the early evening talking and sharing. About faith, our hopes and dreams, and our futures, which were looking more secure as we began to hear news that it was a false alarm.

When we were released, after what seemed like an eternity, we said goodbye and went our separate ways. I went with countless others to the bottom of the hill at our campus’ entrance, avoiding the mob of media and into the arms of the parents who awaited us with tears and unbridled joy.

Though we never spoke again, I would often see the girl around our small campus. We would acknowledge each other with a smile, knowing that we were bonded by our almost-tragic day.

Also see:

Maryvale joins other Catholic schools in honoring victims of gun violence

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

Emily Rosenthal Alster

View all posts from this author

| Recent Commentary |

Cupcakes with 2025 graduation toothpicks in them and a bowl of cookies

Our 31-hour Road Trip

St. Paul and discovering that sin is ‘missing the mark’

Six lit candles on a chocolate birthday cake

Making a birthday wish come true

Pilgrims of Hope: Walking the Way of St. Francis in the Year of Jubilee

The fisherman and the pharisee

| Recent Local News |

Archbishop Lori announces clergy appointments, including pastor and associate pastors

DUAL ENROLLMENT

Double the learning: Dual enrollment provides college credit to high school students

St. Mary’s purchases former Annapolis Area Christian School

Radio Interview: Exploring the Nicene Creed – Part Two

St. Clement Mary Hofbauer adapts to times, cultures as it celebrates 100th anniversary

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • ICE deports Iowa parishioner to Guatemala homeland as supporters pray for his release
  • Come away and rest awhile
  • French woman hopes sharing mystical encounter with Minnesota Benedictine helps sainthood cause
  • Pope: Vatican still ready to host peace talks between Russia, Ukraine
  • Archbishop Lori announces clergy appointments, including pastor and associate pastors
  • Pope prays for conversion of those resisting climate action at new Mass
  • Judge blocks, for now, Planned Parenthood defunding provision backed by bishops
  • ANALYSIS: ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ gives school-choice advocates partial victory with more to do
  • Notre Dame prepares to reopen towers’ tour with return of famed statues of saints to rooftop

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

en Englishes Spanish
en en