EAST LANSING, Mich. — Wednesday was the last day that Michigan State University operations were cancelled, with classes set to resume on Monday. Two days after the shooting, a faculty member shared his reservations about returning to the classroom.
Associate Professor Mitchell Robinson says one of his sons was inside the MSU Union during the deadly shooting Monday night, and one of his students was hurt inside Berkey Hall.
"With our son, we were terrified," he says.
Robinson says his son was having dinner at the MSU Union with two of his friends.
"They thought that someone dropped a tray in the kitchen. And they kind of smiled or laughed about it, like a lot of kids do in cafeterias when things happen," he says. "A few seconds later, really, they heard two more of those sounds. And they realized immediately that they were in an active shooter situation... He and his friends looked at each other. And it took them about three seconds to hit the ground. Because they had been training for this since they were in kindergarten."
Robinson is thankful that his son and his friends got away, but it really bothers him to think about why they knew what to do.
"I just wonder about the psychological damage that we're doing to a generation of kids who grow up thinking that there's going to be a shooting any second, and sadly, too many of them are right," he says.
One of Robinson's students was injured after being shot at Berkey Hall.
"They say he's now awake, and he's able to talk," he says. "I'm just holding out hope that he's gonna make a full recovery. And sadly, we know that three students from our campus are not coming back to school on Monday."
When it comes to returning to school next week, Robinson says he's feeling uncertain and unsure.
"I don't remember ever feeling like that, as a teacher, that I didn't know what was going to happen on Monday," he says.
Robinson knows many faculty members are feeling the same way.
"I think probably right now, every teacher in this country, from preschool through graduate studies, is worried. It's they're scared. And again, they have every right to be scared. Because as it as a society as a culture, we have not been able to make our institutions safe enough," he says.
Robinson says he hopes students know that the staff and faculty at MSU will be there Monday, ready to support them.
"We will do our very best here to make sure that when students come back, they're welcomed. And it's a healthy environment for them to be in, and that we don't ignore what happened, but we use that experience to try to move forward," he says.
Robinson says he hears arguments for more weapons in schools, but he's calling for something different.
"More armed weapons in schools are not going to make anyone safer. So, I understand the concern, I understand the trepidation. I'm feeling it myself, but we don't need to harden schools," he says. "We need to make sure that all of our institutions are safer, and healthier, and more welcoming. We need better mental health supports for our students. We need better better mental health supports out in society. The gentleman who conducted this shooting on Monday wasn't a student, wasn't affiliated with Michigan State, but clearly didn't have the kind of mental health supports that he needed, that his family needed. And that's a failure on our part as a society."
Robinson hopes to see government action for reasonable gun safety laws.
"I have some measure of optimism that things are going to change at the same time, mixed with an awful lot of sadness, that it took something like this, to start to jumpstart that conversation. This is something we need to be talking about all the time, not just after school shootings. Although it seems like 'after school shootings' is all the time," he says.
Robinson's life was also touched by gun violence in another way, with several of his former students now teachers in the Oxford School District.
He says whether or not someone was hurt in that mass shooting, or this one at MSU, it always leaves psychological scars.
"We're damaging a lot of people. And I'm not sure why I can't see a legitimate reason that these shootings continue," Robinson says.
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@13onyourside.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.