By Nick Ubels and Jessica Wind (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: February 27, 2013
Students in a lower-level arts course last Tuesday were shocked when a student allegedly withdrew an air soft pistol in the middle of class.
One of the students present, who wished to remain anonymous, described how the scene unfolded.
“Just the way that he did it was nuts,” he said.
For their assignment on gender bias in society, students were asked to think of a boy’s toy, a girl’s toy and a toy they would consider gender-neutral.
The student in question raised his hand and asked the instructor when students would be presenting on the toys they had selected. The instructor said that students were not required to present, but when pressed by the student, agreed to allow him to offer a brief presentation.
“He’s like, ‘This is my girl toy,’ and it’s like a doll or something,” said the eyewitness. “And then he said, ‘This is my neutral toy,’ and it’s a puzzle.”
According to the witness, that’s when the student announced that he had also brought a boy’s toy along to class.
“He stands up, pulls up the back of his shirt and there’s an airsoft gun, like he was sitting down all class with this thing in the back of his pants,” he said.
The student praised the instructor’s handling of the situation.
“It was really professional; she didn’t lose it on him,” he said. “I think everyone was more surprised at that more than the fact that they were scared.”
The professor called for a break and spoke to the student before he returned to class.
“The class went on normally and at the end she gave us a couple minutes and said ‘If you guys want to talk, you can talk to me’,” he explained. The instructor sent out follow-up emails later in the week to check on her students’ well-being.
There were no threats uttered, but the sight of a weapon on campus, even a fake one, can be cause for alarm. Whether the threat is real or implied, it’s not something UFV security takes lightly. They responded at the end of class and spoke to the student and instructor in private in a nearby classroom.
Security coordinator Justin Cole would not comment on Tuesday’s incident because the university’s investigation is still underway. However, he explained the standard procedure for incidents involves a preliminary investigation from security before the situation is passed on to the university.
According to the UFV student non-academic conduct policy, this gesture falls under prohibited conduct. Policy states that the situation moves to vice-president students Jody Gordon, and a resolution meeting will be scheduled.
The instructor of Tuesday’s class said she was not comfortable with commenting on the incident at this time.
