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When a gunman began firing inside an academic building on the Brown University campus, students didn’t wait for official alerts warning of trouble. They got information almost instantly, in bits and bursts \u2014 through phones vibrating in pockets, messages from strangers, rumors that felt urgent because they might keep someone alive.<\/p>\n
On Dec. 13 as the attack at the Ivy League institution played out during finals week, students took to Sidechat, an anonymous, campus-specific message board used widely at U.S. colleges, for fast-flowing information in real time.<\/p>\n
An Associated Press analysis of nearly 8,000 posts from the 36 hours after the shooting shows how social media has become central to how students navigate campus emergencies.<\/p>\n
Fifteen minutes before the university’s first alert of an active shooter, students were already documenting the chaos. Their posts \u2014 raw, fragmented and sometimes panicked \u2014 formed a digital time capsule of how a college campus experienced a mass shooting.<\/p>\n
As students sheltered in place, they posted while hiding under library tables, crouching in classrooms and hallways. Some comments even came from wounded students, like one posting a selfie from a hospital bed with the simple caption: #finalsweek.<\/p>\n
Others asked urgent questions: Was there a lockdown? Where was the shooter? Was it safe to move?<\/p>\n
It would be days before authorities identified the suspect and found him dead in New Hampshire of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, later linking him to the killing of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor.<\/p>\n
Here’s a look at how the shooting unfolded.<\/p>\n
Described by Harvard Magazine as \u201cthe College\u2019s stream of collective consciousness,\u201d Sidechat allows anyone with a verified university email to post to a campus feed. On most days, the Brown feed is filled with complaints about dining hall food, jokes about professors and stress about exams \u2014 fleeting posts running the gamut of student life.<\/p>\n
On the Saturday afternoon just before the shooting, a student posted about how they wished they could \u201cplay Minecraft for 60 hours straight.\u201d Then, the posts abruptly shifted.<\/p>\n
Crowds began pouring out of Brown\u2019s Barus and Holley building, and someone posted at 4:06 p.m.: \u201cWhy are people running away from B&H?\u201d<\/p>\n
Others quickly followed. \u201cEVERYONE TAKE COVER,\u201d one wrote. \u201cSTAY AWAY FROM THAYER STREET NEAR MACMILLAN 2 PEOPLE JUST GOT SHOT IM BEING DEAD SERIOUS,\u201d another user wrote at 4:10 p.m.<\/p>\n
Dozens of frantic messages followed as students tried to fill the information gap themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cso r we on lockdown or what,\u201d one student asked.<\/p>\n
By the time the university alert was sent at 4:21 p.m., the shooter was no longer on campus \u2014 a fact Brown officials did not yet know.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere would we be without Sidechat?\u201d one student wrote.<\/p>\n
A university spokesperson said Brown’s alert reached 20,000 people minutes after the school’s public safety officials were notified shots had been fired. Officials deliberately didn\u2019t use sirens to avoid sending people rushing to seek shelter into harm\u2019s way, said the spokesperson, Brian E. Clark, who added Brown commissioned two external reviews of the response with the aim of enhancing public safety and security.<\/p>\n
Long after the sun had set, students sheltered in dark dorm rooms and study halls. Blinds were closed. Doors were barricaded with dressers, beds and mini fridges.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoor is locked windows are locked I\u2019ve balanced a metal pipe thing on the handle so if anyone even tries the handle from the outside it\u2019ll make a loud noise,\u201d one student wrote.<\/p>\n
Students reacted to every sound \u2014 footsteps in hallways, distant sirens, helicopters overhead. When alerts came, the vibrations and ringtones were jarring. Some feared that names of the dead would be released \u2014 and that they would recognize someone they knew.<\/p>\n
Law enforcement moved through campus buildings, clearing them floor by floor.<\/p>\n
A student who fled Barus and Holley asked whether anyone could text his parents to let them know he had made it out safely. Others said they had left phones behind in classrooms when they fled, unable to reach frantic loved ones. Ironically, those closest to the shooting often had the least information.<\/p>\n
Many American students expressed emotions hovering between numbness and heartbreak.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust got a text from a friend I haven\u2019t spoken to in nearly three years,\u201d one student wrote. \u201cOur last messages? Me checking in on her after the shooting at Michigan State.\u201d Multiple students replied, saying they\u2019d had similar experiences.<\/p>\n
International students posted about parents unable to sleep on the other side of the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just want a hug from my mom,\u201d one student wrote.<\/p>\n
As the hours dragged on, students struggled with basic needs. Some described urinating in trash cans or empty laundry detergent bottles because they were too afraid to leave their rooms. Others spoke of drinking to cope.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was on the street when it happened & suddenly I felt so scared,\u201d one student wrote. \u201cI ran and didn\u2019t calm down for a while. I feel numb, tired, & about to throw up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another wrote: \u201cI\u2019m locked inside! Haven\u2019t eaten anything today! I\u2019m so scared i don\u2019t even know if I get out of this alive or dead.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some students posted into the early morning, more than 10 hours into the lockdown, saying they couldn\u2019t sleep. Sidechat also documented acts of kindness, including a student going door to door with macaroni and cheese cups in a dark dorm.<\/p>\n
Students repeatedly asked the same questions \u2014 news? sources? \u2014 and challenged one another to verify what they saw before reposting it.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrankly I\u2019d rather hear misinformation than people not report stuff they\u2019ve heard,\u201d one student wrote.<\/p>\n
Others pushed back, sharing a Google Doc that would grow to 28 pages where students could find the most updated, verified information. Some posted police scanner transcriptions or warned against relying on artificial intelligence summaries of the developing situation. Professors \u2014 who rarely post on the app \u2014 joined the feed, urging caution and offering reassurance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re talking about the active situation please add a source!!!\u201d one student wrote.<\/p>\n
But \u201creliable information,\u201d students noted, often arrived with a delay.<\/p>\n
Within about 30 minutes of the shooting, posts incorrectly claimed the shooter had been caught. Reports of more gunshots \u2014 later proven false \u2014 continued into the night and the next day, fueling fear and frustration. Asked one student, what are police doing \u201cRIGHT NOW\u201d?<\/p>\n
Replies came quickly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are trying their best,\u201d one person responded. \u201cBe grateful,\u201d another added. \u201cThey are putting their lives in danger at this moment for us to be safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Students awoke Sunday to a campus they no longer recognized. It had snowed overnight \u2014 the first snowfall of the academic year.<\/p>\n
In post after post, students called the sight unsettling. What was usually a celebration felt instead like confirmation something had irrevocably shifted.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt truly hurt seeing the flakes fall this morning, beautiful and tragic,\u201d one student wrote.<\/p>\n
Even as the lockdown lifted, many said they were unsure what to do \u2014 where they could go, whether dining halls were open, whether it was safe to move.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do I do rn?\u201d one student posted. \u201cI\u2019m losing my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Students walked through fresh snow in a daze, heading to blood donation centers. Others noticed flowers being placed at the campus gates and outside Barus and Holley.<\/p>\n
Many mourned not only the two students killed, but the innocence they felt had been stripped from their campus.<\/p>\n
\u201cWill never see the first snow of the season and not think about those two,\u201d one student wrote.<\/p>\n
With the lockdown ended, students returned to their dorms as Sidechat continued to fill with grief and reflection. Many said Brown no longer felt the same.<\/p>\n
\u201cSnow will always be bloody for me,\u201d one person posted.<\/p>\n
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com<\/p>\n
#Mass #shootings #campus #give #rise #kind #lifesaving #service #journalism #anonymous #message #board #called #Sidechat<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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