The killings at Virginia Tech, the largest gun massacre in United States history, is still fresh in the minds of people in Goshen. A day after the Monday massacre, a Goshen College counselor, a GC student, a Goshen Community School’s administrator, and two employees from First United Methodist Church were asked for their thoughts.

GC campus counselor Char Hochstetler would help GC students cope with a tragedy if one occurred.

She was asked to imagine what the Virginia Tech students are currently undergoing. She said, “This is major. I think that initially those students would be taking comfort in each other and in their community. Hopefully to have an opportunity for people to hear their confusion, their questions, their horror. As time goes on, their feelings will become more individual and they’ll know that they need to talk to somebody (counselor). I’m sure Virginia Tech will set up opportunities for groups then for people who need individual time to process.”

A prayer vigil to remember the students at Virginia Tech was held at GC this morning.

“I think it brings up the reality of the uncertainty of life and how we need to take each day as it comes,” Hochstetler said.

Goshen Community Schools executive director of secondary education and transportation, Barry Younghans, was asked about his thoughts on a personal and professional level.

He said, “Personally, it’s a tragedy. My first thought was ‘What can we do to help those kids?’ Professionally, it brings us back to all the security things that we do throughout our campus and the corporation to keep our kids safe.”

He explained that Goshen public school facilities have just one door unlocked. At new facilities visitors can’t enter the school without passing through the office first. This week, Goshen Middle School just implemented a process where a visitor is identified before being allowed into the school, then the school door is unlocked electronically. The new procedure was implemented before news of the Virginia Tech killings.

“After Columbine, school security changed all over the country. I think that’s about the time we really started to pay attention to that ... Our best defense we feel is knowing our kids, getting relationships with our kids so that any kids in our corporation has some adult that they can look up to. We’ve talked about it in a principals’ meeting and reminded people to review their crisis plan. But it really reflects to us that nothing is foolproof. Metal detectors in inner-cities didn’t work. The best thing that we can do is know our kids and we continue to try and do that.

Goshen College sophomore Sam Boldman said, “One of my first thoughts was, ‘What if it happened here?’ And then I just felt bad for everyone there (Virginia Tech). We’ve talked about it a little bit in the dorms. What would we do if we found ourselves in that situation? It’s hard to say. Could we jump him or would we have to run and leap out a window? I don’t know.”

Harriet Martin, office employee at First United Methodist Church, has a nephew who attends Virginia Tech. She said, “The first thing I did was have my husband call out there. He (nephew) was close enough that he saw a lot of what was going on, but he was not hurt. My first reaction was ‘Oh, my word my nephew is at that school.’ Also, I just felt so sad. It is just so sad. Then I felt so sorry for the other families, some of those who’ve heard that their child was killed, and I thought ‘Wouldn’t that be so terrible.’”

Steve Miller, employee at First United Methodist Church, said, “It scares me because of how it will affect our rights and freedoms. Because we are going to end up in a police state just to keep our safety, and that’s scary. It just scares me to death. Just because some crazy people are out there. I mean 32 people! And he didn’t use an assault rifle or anything like that. It was a handgun. It’s a sad thing.”