News

NIU shootings stir range of emotions, actions

Posted February 15, 2008 10:00 pm

Dave Haney and Brian Feldt

Northern Illinois University shooting victim Ryanne Mace is remembered by her grandfather as a "star student," who tragically sat in the front of class on Thursday.

"She was the kind of kid you'd like your kids to grow up with," grandfather Eugene Mace of Washington said Friday. "She didn't get in trouble, her teachers always thought a lot of her. She had a lot of friends."

Ryanne Mace, 19, of Carpentersville was one of five killed by Stephen Kazmierczak, who opened fire Thursday on a Cole Hall classroom full of students. He committed suicide on the lecture hall's stage. Ryanne Mace was studying to become a psychologist and case worker.

Eugene Mace said she was a hard worker who didn't need to be pushed in order to do well. He said she had worked at an office supply store in high school, a department store in college, other counseling groups throughout, and had always progressed and done well.

"Even when she was in high school she was a peer counselor," he said. "We're just in a daze right now. We don't know which end is up."

Ryanne Mace was an only child and the only grandchild of Eugene and Sally Ann Mace.

'I knew exactly what was going on'

As soon as Nick McClone heard the gunshots, he knew what was going on.

McClone, a NIU senior from Metemora, said he was within 100 yards of Cole Hall when the shootings occurred.

As an avid hunter, McClone said he was pretty sure what was happening as he made his way back from an English class.

"I could hear it and I knew exactly what was going on," he said. "I have a shotgun and it is second nature to hear those noises. People were running around, crying and all upset. It was pretty screwed up."

McClone said he had been in Cole Hall before and didn't think there was much anyone could do to avoid the shooter. He said there is only one exit located near the front of the room, where the shooter was positioned.

"It was more or less if you were going to sit there and watch and try to figure out what was going on or get the hell out of dodge," he said.

McClone's father, Brian McClone, was at work when his co-workers informed him of the shootings about 4 p.m. He said he immediately tried to contact his son but couldn't get through. He couldn't reach his son until 6 p.m., he said.

"I finally got through to his girlfriend's cell and then got ahold of him," he said. "I sat there for a couple hours not really knowing, just hoping that they were fine. I was relieved. It was a scary thing."

Nick McClone said the streets of DeKalb were pretty empty Thursday night, which typically sees a lot of partiers. He said the university is offering meetings on what exactly happened and where.

"There have been quite a few meetings," he said. "There were a few last night, one this morning (Friday) and a few more later today (Friday). They are just educating the public and students of what further synopsis they are going to do."

He said most students he knew, including himself, were headed home for the weekend to be with family.

Nick McClone also said he thought emergency crews reacted very well to the situation. It couldn't have been more than a few minutes between when the first squad cars arrived and the time he heard the gunshots, he said.

'I was up on that stage'

Zach Harper of Peoria was teaching his film criticism class at Cole Hall just hours before Kazmierczak's rampage.

"It's pretty surreal, somber - there's gatherings of people praying," the first-year NIU graduate student said less than 24 hours after the shooting.

"I was up on that stage, the stage where the shooter committed suicide," he continued, having just proctored a test to some 350 students, which wrapped up shortly before 11 a.m.

Harper was nowhere near Cole Hall at the time of the shootings, shortly after 3 p.m., having left campus to go home to rest before his own courses later that day. His colleagues who were there, whose offices are near the lecture hall, said they locked the doors and stayed put.

The normal "hustle and bustle" on the campus he described as a "city within a city" of the 25,000-student campus was gone.

"That feeling is not here today … it's desolate," he said, noting many had left for home.

Anxious minutes

As a parent whose daughter attends NIU, Jeff Parmenter of Peoria said the 20 to 30 minutes that went by from hearing about the shootings to the time he heard his daughter Jessica's voice was "a little crazy because I didn't know what to think."

Jeff Parmenter said his daughter, a Peoria Christian graduate and accomplished golfer, had left the campus to stay with a friend Thursday night and would be coming home Friday.

"I felt relieved," he said upon hearing from his daughter, despite the quick conversation as she was still trying to locate her roommate, who also turned out to be safe.

Not all phone calls were going through to cell phones on Thursday, he guessed, because of the high volume of calls to the area, noting that his daughter and her mother were "talking" using instant messaging over the Internet.

Parmenter did note they have no family relation to Daniel Parmenter, 20, of Westchester, who was among those killed.

Still feels safe

Katie Parr of Mapleton said Thursday's shootings haven't deterred her from planning to attend NIU this fall.

"I'm nervous about going," the 20-year-old admitted, "when I visited there I felt safe and I still feel that way. "(The tragedy) does make me more aware of what could happen, still a shooting could happen anywhere at anytime. I feel I have more Northern pride seeing them pulling together."

Parr, who has friends attending NIU, said a few are going to stay with other friends off-campus while some are coming home.

"It makes me mad that someone would do something like that," she continued. "I'm praying for families of the victims."

Can violence be stopped

The NIU attack was the second such attack in less than a year. The other, the shootings at Virginia Tech, was the deadliest at a school in U.S. history.

With many students and parents saying this type of attack could happen at any school at any time, other schools are taking precautions - if they haven't done so already.

Robin Kaler, the associate chancellor for public affairs at the University of Illinois, said her university had appropriate measures installed even before the Virginia Tech shootings happened.

But as always, she said, the university will study the NIU attack to be better prepared in the future.

"Unfortunately, there are no absolute safeguards," she said. "Whenever something like this happens, we always look at the case, analyze it and dissect it to see if we can learn anything from it."

Jay Groves, director of media relations for Illinois State University, said while he thinks ISU's communication system is sound, there is always room for improvement.

"We are always learning," he said. "We are going to upgrade our alert system to a quick text alert system, which is one more thing. But it's not a complete safeguard. We can minimize the effects of violence, but it is impossible to eliminate it."

For Bradley University Police Chief Dave Baer, whose job it is to maintain the safety at a small "city within a city": "That's the kind of unknown you have to contend with."

He believes the incidents of violence on school campuses seem to be escalating and spreading. "You prepare and hope it never happens," Baer said.

Bradley spokeswoman Kath Conver said the tragedy at NIU had an almost immediate effect on campus, where more than 250 students registered overnight with the college's emergency text messaging warning system. Implemented last year at the start of the fall semester, more than 3,000 faculty, staff and students are on the notification system list, which sends a text message to cell phones in the event of an emergency. The university also uses a similar e-mail version to send an alert throughout the college.

Conver, a NIU alum herself, said of the incident, "I'm sick about it, I think it's awful like everyone else."

Illinois Central College President John Erwin sent a letter to the college community Friday: "All of us at Illinois Central College are deeply saddened by the tragic deaths at Northern Illinois University yesterday. We express our heartfelt condolences to the families, students, faculty and staff there.

"Please know the safety and security of everyone on our campuses are taken very seriously. I want to reassure you that ICC does have emergency plans in place and that we continue to review and revise the plans as we learn from others. While no plan is fail-safe, we have contemplated the possibility of many types of emergencies and have worked to create approaches that will protect the safety and security of our students, faculty, staff and visitors."

Erwin made note staff, faculty and students should review ICC's emergency response guide and counseling is available from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on the East Peoria campus.

Honoring a colleague

Of the five victims killed, one was journalism student Daniel Parmenter, an advertising representative for The Northern Star, NIU's student newspaper.

In efforts to honor him and paper, which ran a Friday issue despite the loss of one of its staff members, the Illinois Collegiate Press Association is hoping to have all ICPA members - more than 40 Illinois college newspapers - collectively recognize The Northern Star and its coverage in such a difficult and tragic event.

Ron Wigington, first vice president of ICPA and adviser for the Elmhurst College Leader, sent a mass e-mail to every ICPA member urging the publication to use The Northern Star's front page as their own. He said thus far, most publications have been positively responsive.

"What we are trying to do is pause and recognize the tragedy to one of our own members but also show solidarity," he said. "We thought we needed to do something really big. And this is something that we are all a part of. This kind of cooperation among normally competitive rivals is really cool to watch."

Wigington added another handful of papers have agreed to run similar tributes in their next issue.

Erin Wood, the editor in chief for The Scout, Bradley's student newspaper and ICPA member, said The Scout will run The Star's front page on page three of its next issue, which will be released Friday. She said it would run on A3 because her paper is published once a week.

"It's something every college should be doing," Wood said. "I can't imagine losing someone on our staff, especially in such a horrible tragedy. It's crazy to think one day they are there and the next day they aren't. We have a tight-knit staff here and losing one of them would be devastating; and then to go on and run a newsroom and a newspaper would be especially tough."

There to help

Meanwhile, Red Cross chapters across central Illinois are on standby in case NIU is in need of its services.

Vickie Parry, a spokeswoman for Peoria's Red Cross, said she has been in contact with NIU officials, who have declined their services. Still, Parry said her agency is staying alert to the possibility of future help.

"We are on standby if they need us in terms of care for the victims' families or the mental health of students on campus," she said. "Those are just two of the services that we can offer them if they need our assistance."

Amy Paul, director of communications for OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, said all level one trauma centers in the state were put on alert, including St. Francis. Although no NIU victims were transferred to Peoria, St. Francis' sister center, OSF St. Anthony, received two victims via helicopter who remain in critical condition.

In memory

After declaring a state of emergency Thursday afternoon, Gov. Rod Blagojevich ordered all U.S. and Illinois flags be lowered to half staff Friday in memory of the shooting victims. And, in wake of the shooting, Blagojevich traveled to the NIU campus Friday to meet with university officials and emergency responders.

Dave Haney can be reached at 686-3181 or dhaney@pjstar.com. Brian Feldt can be reached at 686-3194 or bfeldt@pjstar.com. Ed McMeniman contributed to this story.

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