After a huge comeback win from
Ohio State University’s football
team, tragic news swept the campus
as Abdul Razak Ali Artan, a student
at OSU, attacked and hospitalized
11 students on November 28.
The incident was first reported
early Monday morning. After Artan
drove his car into a crowd of people
he got out of the car and started
attacking people with a knife.
Students on the campus were told
to “run, hide, fight” if they came
in contact with Artan before police
could defuse the situation.
“We all live with the fear that
things like this can happen to
us,” said Michael Drake, Ohio
State’s president, during a news
conference. “By being diligent,
we believe we can be as safe as
possible.”
Despite the violence, students at
OSU reported that they still felt safe
at the university. WS alum Julia
Schwabenbaur, a current student
at OSU, said she felt the event was
handled as well as possible.
“I personally feel very safe
[because] OSU isn’t numb to the
fact that events like this can occur
and I felt like the university was very
prepared,” said Schwabenbaur, WS
Class of 2013. “The Buckeye Alert
went out almost instantly telling
us to “run, hide, fight” and the
situation was handled in a matter
of minutes by a campus police
officer. I don’t think it was possible
to handle the situation any better.”
Directly following the attack,
students said the atmosphere at the
school was one of somber solidarity
with their injured classmates.
However, they were able to unite in
their grief by relying on each other
for support.
“Now I think we are focusing on
being resilient and coming together
to finish out the semester,” said
Schwabenbaur. “I walk through the
area where the incident occurred
every day and it’s still eerie, but I
think a lot of students are trying to
focus on studying for finals now.
Overall, I think the atmosphere is
starting to return to normal.”
Some students take the position
and look at it as a reality check that
evil lurks in this world, even close
to home. If anything, this event
proves OSU’s resilience in the face
of adversity.
“I think it was a big reality
check for students. It’s been hard for students.

It’s been hard to have
something of this nature to happen
at a place we all love very much,”
said Schwabenbaur. “We realize
that we are lucky and it could have
been a lot worse but it still hurts.”
When events like this happen,
students are forced to wonder what
would happen if something similar
happened in their own school. At
WS, we are lucky that nothing of
this magnitude has ever occured.
“Unfortunately, there isn’t
too much you can do to prevent a
situation like this from occurring
besides continuing to be vigilant
and prepared,” said Schwabenbaur.
FCPS has been cited as a national
model for crisis and emergency
response plans. They maintain that
they “continually wok with county,
state, and federal health, safety,
and emergency personnel leaders”
to ensure coordinated responses to
potential threats.
Although tragedies like this can
happen, Spartans can rest assured
that WS is prepared to keep them
safe.
“I have always felt pretty safe at
WS,” said senior Tyler Wernecke.
“We practice the lockdown drills
and I think that we would be pretty
prepared to handle a threat.”