Professor Trax was not the only faculty member who disregarded the danger. Student Bryce Shaffer told The Purdue Review that Professor Alon Kantor also continued teaching without any changes. “[He] told us we’re being typical Americans and hysterical for asking him to lock doors, and [continued] lecturing.”
A surreal scene unfolded around noon on Tuesday. As a gunman shot an instructor at point-blank range in front of a classroom of students, some Purdue professors continued to teach class as if nothing was amiss, ignoring students’ pleas to lock the doors and turn off the lights.
“I’ll have the TA tackle him if he comes in,” joked Professor Rebecca Trax, according to Sami Menard, a student in her 12:00 Introduction to Accounting class.
Trax may very well have been describing the scene that unfolded in the Electrical Engineering building, where a TA was killed.
Trax’s class is held in the Class of 1950 lecture hall, one of the biggest lecture halls at Purdue. It is in these lecture halls that the greatest number of students were vulnerable. Menard and many other students reported that Trax took no precautions whatsoever when the university-wide text messaging system alerted students and faculty to the danger. Lights were left on and doors were left unlocked while she continued to lecture.
[…]
