Royal Purple

Issue date: 2/20/08 Section: News

Weik [Click to enlarge]

Kastning [Click to enlarge]

Disbelief followed by fear and panic were the initial reactions of students at Northern Illinois University Feb. 14 after a former student opened fire in a classroom.

Two students discussed the moments immediately following the shooting and how they are adjusting to the tragedy following the deaths of six people and the wounding of 16 others.

"We have to return to school next Monday, and that will be our biggest challenge," said Lindsey Kastning, a sophomore at NIU. "For those who have not accepted it, when we see the still bloodstained snow it will be more real than ever."

Kastning had just returned to her dorm room when she got a phone call from her friend.

"My friend Veronica's voice said, 'There's a man with a gun,' and the phone went dead," Kastning said. "Recently I have been trying to gain membership into a co-ed fraternity, so I thought maybe it was a joke.

"Then my roomate got a phone call, and we found out that there really was a shooter."

Sarah Weik, a senior graduating from NIU in May, was in class in a nearby building during the shooting.

"I was scared ... my heart was beating fast, but I just sat there in disbelief, Weik said. "About 10 minutes [after we found out about the shooting] someone ran to the door and told us they were evacuating the building. We ... were ushered out the back doors by several police with rifles, bullet proof vests and riot gear."

After Weik left the academic building she was in, she walked to her car and drove back to her apartment.

"The traffic from the sudden mass evacuation of campus was insane," Weik said. "I could only imagine what all the Dekalb residents must have been thinking. Most of them probably had not seen the news yet."

Kastning works for NIU's student newspaper, The Northern Star. She said she contacted the editor in chief soon after finding out the details of the event.

"I don't even think he hung up the phone," Kastning said. "He just rushed out to see what was happening and I still haven't heard from him."

After watching the news and learning where the shooting took place, Kastning said reality started to sink in.

"At the same time the day before I had class in [the same room]," she said. "If it had only been one day earlier, I sat in the third row in that classroom, and I can only imagine what could have happened. My friends and I aren't sure if Valentine's Day will ever be the same again."

Kastning transfered to NIU in September, but she has every intention of going back.

"Even though some of my friends and fellow students lost their lives Thursday, I cannot let some crazy guy with a gun win," Kastning said. "I will go back to that school even if I am scared."

Weik recieved a letter from a mutual friend of the shooter saying, "I am irate that someone came in and took away our feeling of safety, and took the lives of innocent people, and threw us all into this horrible mess. The Steve that the world met on Thursday was not the Steve that was my friend."

Weik said hearing this person's perspective has affected her initial thoughts of the shooter.

"It's much easier to hate him and think of him as the monster the media and the majority of us affected portray him as," Weik said. "To learn that he's human and that he was loved and respected by many is all the more terrifying. A bright, young man who seemed to have everything going for him sets out to kill innocent people?

"It really shakes my faith in people. I can't help but think that anyone could be this way and you wont see it coming."

Both Kastning and Weik will return to NIU when classes resume on Monday.

"It is sad that it takes such a tragedy to remind 20-year-olds and teenagers that we are not invincible," Kastning said. "My friends and I are emotionally drained, and we are not sure what we will face next Monday. We are thankful for each other and thankful that we did not lose more friends, but are still furious that even one life was taken."

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