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"I Saw Clearly Down the Barrel" -- A Look at Campus Security
by Bria Smith and Megan Trasport
Security on campus has been a major issue on the minds of students at Mars Hill College this year. Here’s why: three non-related incidents have involved violence or a possible threat to safety on campus.
The first incident to rattle students came last fall. Mars Hill College officially used a new, campus-wide phone alert system, Contact Now. The system came into being because of safety concerns emanating from violence on other college campus, like the horrific events at Virginia Tech.
Its first use at Mars Hill came on Nov. 10th. An armed driver of a Tennessee car had been spotted heading toward campus. The driver had stolen a car from a parking lot at East Tennessee State University, less than an hour’s drive north of Mars Hill.
It was feared the car might be stashed on campus, according to MHC security staff, so Contact Now, which contacts people via cell phone and email, was used to alert the campus.
A few months later, in January of this year, the town of Mars Hill endured a domestic violence event that ultimately ended in a fatality near campus. No MHC students, faculty or staff were involved.
Craig Goforth, dean of student affairs at MHC, is one of the chief decision makers regarding safety issues. He said there was no threat to Mars Hill College from the domestic fatality. When Goforth was notified, a suspect had been taken into custody.
“Had there been anything else that we thought was a continuing threat or issues to the campus, we would have notified security, and we would have used our Contact Now system,” he said.
Two months later, an MHC apartment break-in directly affected three students, one of whome was pistol whipped and another was threatened with a gun to his mouth.
In March, a female non-student, along with several male non-students from off campus, forced their way into an apartment at the Dixon-Palmer campus residence. The three students who were threatened are not identified. Still under investigation, the motives of the gunman are unclear.
Police speculated that the intruders were members of an Asheville gang and are said to be former students at a Buncombe County High School. Goforth said it’s not concrete whether the suspects were members of a gang. “My opinion is if their mothers are still paying for their health insurance and paying their cell phone bills, then to me they aren’t gang members,” he said in an interview with Hilltop staff.
Here’s what happened that night at Dixon-Palmer. Before midnight, the armed group forced their way into a townhouse and held three students captive. One of the students was able to escape while the others were left defenseless. The student who ran from the scene told his story to police via 911 from another location on campus, the Lion’s Den in the student union.
In audio from the 911 recording uploaded online by the Asheville Citizen-Times, the student told the sheriff’s department a terrifying account:
“In Dixon-Palmer, they had guns. One of the girls, she came in with one of her friends…I have no idea what they looked like. They have blue bandanas on their faces, all you could see were their eyes. Only thing that I saw was a 9 millieter gun pointed in my face, I saw clearly down the barrel, that’s all I can tell you right now.”
The gunman struck a student in the head with a firearm, causing a contusion, according to Goforth. The firearm discharged into the wall but struck no one. The suspects then fled the scene.
“We brought in a lot of blue lights, a lot of blue lights, and we had the gang task force came as well as the SWAT team come in,” Goforth said. “We can turn the heat when it needs to go. This happened so quickly that we could never verify at first if a gun had been discharged.”
Goforth said it took 35 minutes to confirm that a weapon had been used, and by that time, two people had been arrested. Because security personnel felt the threat of violence had passed, Contact Now was not activated.
“We knew the gun was gone, and we knew the girl was gone. We knew exactly where they were. There was no threat to campus,” he said.
Denise Griffin, the campus director of safety and security, echoed the decision behind the threat assessment.
“It was a collective decision,” Griffin told The Hilltop. “It was between me, the chief of police and Dean Goforth. Number one, we did not know for a fact that a gun had been discharged on campus. By the time that was verified, we had verification that suspects were already in Buncombe County, and there was not a threat in the area.”
Griffin said the time of the incident also contributed to the decision whether to alert campus.
“This happened at midnight, maybe 1 o’clock in the morning,” she said. “We saw no point in causing a campus-wide panic by initiating the Contact Now system and saying there had been a fire arm on campus, but it’s not here anymore.”
Goforth, who is known for caring deeply about the safety of the student body, is ultimately satisfied with the way things were handled that night. Nevertheless, efforts to improve campus safety are ongoing. More emergency phones may be added to the campus, as well as better lighting. Currently, 14 emergency phones are located around campus for use day or night.
Also, Dan Lunsford, president of the college, has authorized the addition of an extra security officer, Goforth said. For five nights a week, the officer’s job is simply to walk the residence halls.
“If I had my way, I’d reroute 213. Move the whole road around the campus and put a gate on both ends of it,” Goforth said. “That’d make me happy…I’m not gonna get there, by the way.”
Efforts to secure residences halls generally fall on residential directors. Amy Brock, a junior, said she’s doing all she can as director of Stroup Dormitory to keep her residential living area safe. Brock said that a lot of security rests in the hands of residents.
“I can’t be at the door monitoring everyone that comes in and out of the building,” she said. “As much as students may dislike visitation sheets, that is one of many ways that we try to keep the dorms safe, so that I know who is in my dorm at all times.”
Resident assistants are on duty at night, but Brock said it’s always best to know who you are opening the door for when coming and going.
Last year, she said one of the biggest issues that arose was a streaker. An older man not affiliated with the college had been spotted nude on campus. Brock said the man was running up to windows at the second floor of Stroup.
The most daunting issue was her inability to predict when he might happen appear.
“The guy was so unpredictable. We didn’t know, and you had to be able to think quickly on your toes,” she said.
Brock works another way to maintain campus safety. When it comes to minor offenses on campus, she plays a big role. As chief justice of the judicial board, Brock hears about 20 to 30 cases a month of infractions to school rules.
Some cases bypass the judicial board due to their severity and go to an appeals board. The appeals board is made up of students, faculty and staff. It also hears appeals from the judicial board.
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