Associate Professor Miko Rose, DO, recounts being in East Lansing during and after the Michigan State University mass shooting. She also discusses steps we can all take to prevent future violence.
I lay drenched in sweat on the yoga mat, blinking up toward the wall, finally feeling my lungs fill fully with air. The instructor entered the room and said, “I am so sorry to do this right now, but everyone needs to leave the studio as quickly and safely as possible. There is an active shooter on campus; an event just occurred two blocks from here.”
As I left the studio, the night sky lit up with police and fire trucks whizzing by as far as the eye could see. Along with thousands of university students, faculty and staff, I received an automated message instructing me to “Run, hide, fight” due to the presence of an active shooter in the community. The calls repeated every 20 minutes throughout the night.
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The intervention: Preventing recurrence behind the scenes
Alyse Ley, DO, associate chairperson of education and research at the MSU Department of Psychiatry, joined forces with community leaders to establish and direct the Prevent 2 Protect: Adolescent Targeted Violence Prevention Project. Supported by Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and funded by a $15 million appropriation from the Michigan Department of Education, the program focuses on working with adolescents at risk of committing acts of targeted violence. The project is administered by a research-to-practice hub of mental health and law enforcement experts who provide holistic assessments of adolescents deemed to be high-risk, individualized care plans for high-risk adolescents, community consultation, education and training.
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