'It's important:' MSU students leave notes, drawings to memorialize tragedy
EAST LANSING — It's important to preserve the memories and emotions, said Ellie Barron.
Barron, a sophomore zoology student from Troy, was one of dozens of Michigan State students who filled out colored note cards with stories, memories, drawings or poems on a sunny and windy Sunday at Demonstration Field near Spartan Stadium, five weeks after the horror of a mass shooting.
The note cards are headed to the university's museum, where they will be archived and potentially made into an exhibit in the future.
As she approached the folding tables set up in the field at an event dubbed Walk Together, Barron said she wasn't sure what she was going to write.
Her friend, Sofia Piotrowski, from the Chicago area and also a zoology sophomore, wrote about feeling weirdly calm while there was an active shooter on campus on the evening of Feb. 13. A veteran of years of active shooter drills before she ever arrived in East Lansing, Piotrowski sheltered during the shooting with Rae, her year-old French bulldog, who also came to the field Sunday.
As Piotrowski finished writing her note card, Rae tugged a bit and met the kneeling Kirin Crafthefer with some kisses as Crafthefer returned the favor with some petting.
Crafthefer and Hannah Greenspan, both sophomores, helped to organize the event in the hope students could record their experiences for the future. People who weren't able to come Sunday can go to the university museum, where there will be a dropbox for note cards.
"Everyone processes this differently, from terrified to calm," Greenspan said.
There have been a number of campus events and opportunities for students to share their experiences. This one, canceled from earlier in the week because of bad weather, was designed to help people who may not have the time or comfort level to step in front of a crowd or a microphone, or to reach people who may have different experiences or goals from other protests or events, the two said.
"This is about validation of everyone's story," Greenspan said.
Madeline Tocco, who represents the MSU Council for Students with Disabilities, said she wanted to write about access opportunities that allowed many students with disabilities to be off campus during the shooting that killed three students and wounded five others.
"Not everyone can 'run, hide, fight," Tocco said, referring to the instructions students were given in a university alert during the shooting.
A group of three friends − Anjali Thomas, a Minnesota sophomore in pre-med; McKenzie Kennedy, an Ann Arbor sophomore in pre-med; and Tristyn Guerreo, a Grand Rapids sophomore in elementary education − said they came to share their stories.
Thomas said events in public with students, like writing note cards or just sharing space together, are important to her. Kennedy said she is grateful for the sense of community in the aftermath of the shooting. Guerreo said she is concerned about her future as an educator in an age where school shootings happen regularly.
As Barron and Piotrowski finished writing their note cards with Rae looking on, Barron talked about what she wrote on a card, words about a friend who was sheltering in a bathroom at Berkey Hall, one of the locations of the shooting.
"She was texting me that she loved me and she was scared and I wanted to text her that everything would be OK but I couldn't because I didn't know if it would and I didn't want the last thing I ever said to her to be a lie," Barron said. "I told her to keep texting me because if she stopped, that moment of silence would last forever and I would never see her again. I think it's important. These things are tough to hear, I'm just a 19 year old kid, that's just like...." She didn't finish the thought out loud.
Her friends gave her a hug.
Contact Mike Ellis at mellis@lsj.com or on Twitter @MikeEllis_AIM
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: 'It's important:' MSU students leave notes, drawings to memorialize tragedy
