Life Changer
It was a long eight years, before Lisa Hamp, a survivor of the Virginia Tech shooting, sought help for emotional trauma.
Hamp shared her story with Slippery Rock students Wednesday in the theater of the Smith Student Center about the moments in the classroom, in the aftermath and in recovery from the day that changed her life.
Hamp said April 16, 2007, felt like any other day.
“It was cold and snowy,” she said. “It was a spring storm, like today.”
The shooter, senior student Seung-Hui Cho, killed 30 people and injured 23 more before committing suicide. Cho killed his first two victims in a campus dorm at about 8:45 a.m.
Hamp was waking up for the day and getting ready for classes.
“Up until this time, I had never had a hard challenge,” she said. “I didn't think about safety. I took it for granted.”
As Hamp, who lived off campus, rode the bus to make her 9:05 a.m. class, the shooter was depositing a package at a U.S. Post Office containing evidence of a mind warped into hatred.
“I know nothing of this first shooting,” Hamp said.
The school did not notify the students or lock down the campus in the time before her class began.
“It was about two-thirds the way through (the class) when we heard the gunshots,” she said.
After a teacher's assistant and a classmate were nearly shot in the act of confirming the gunman in the hallway, Hamp and her classmates scrambled from their seats and barricaded the door with a lightweight table and desk.
“As soon as we put up this barricade, the shooter is at the door,” Hamp said.
She and her classmates lay on the floor to avoid the bullets ripping through the door and their barricade.
“As the bullets go through the door, they were going over our heads,” she said.
The gunman left their room to visit others. They thought about escaping but instead reinforced their barricade. The gunman tried again unsuccessfully to enter the room. It was his last attempt before moving into another room to kill himself.
Then the police arrived, she said.
The next day she attended a ceremony.
The next week she tried counseling. Then, she went home.
Then, she returned for her senior year.
By the time Hamp returned to campus, she was already hiding anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and an eating disorder, she said.Hamp said she tried to run and diet her way through the stress, but little things like loud banging noises or being too far from exits affected her in ways she didn't understand.“I hated being in the classroom,” she said. “My eyes were always on the door.”Hamp said her anxiety stretched beyond the walls of her classes.“The resemblance between fireworks and gunfire is eerie,” she said.After eight years, Hamp sought help. She said her stress had been affecting her ability to have a child with her husband.“I didn't want to tell people I was hurting and that I wasn't doing well,” she said. “I was running from my feelings.”Hamp said she found the right person in her third counselor.“You have to be compatible with your counselor,” she said. “You have to trust them with your most vulnerable feelings.”After telling the SRU students about her recovery, she told them how they could make a difference in their own safety with the right kind of education. She works with a nonprofit, Safe and Sound Schools, that focuses on active shooter planning.She said good communication was something she and her classmates did that saved their lives. Good communication is telling people what's going on, but discretely so as not to draw the attention of the shooter, she said.“(The teacher's assistant) told us explicitly what she saw,” she said.Hamp said planning is important too.Slippery Rock emergency management administrator Paul Novak used the opportunity to tell students how the university is working to deal with active shooter scenarios.He said the police force has been trained, and there are plans for the students to get involved in preparations, too.“For an hour or two it's important for us to stop and practice,” Novak said.Novak said the university had its first campuswide drill last year, and they plan to drill again this year with the expansion of a realistic experience. He said the information will all be presented to students ahead of the April 19 drill.“I don't believe there was a book in Norris Hall that told them to do this or do that,” Novak said. “It was the courage of the people in that room.”Hamp said she finds more peace with the shooting each day. She had her first child, Grace Marie, in 2006. She is pregnant with her second child.“As you can see, I have no problems with that now,” she said.She said her only concern now is continuing to educate people about how they can improve their own safety.“I think the discussion is an important one,” Hamp said. “No one knows how this can completely change the trajectory of their life.”
