According to the Gun Violence Archive, as of Sept. 23 there were a reported 53 school shootings across the United States in 2025. On average that’s five shootings per month.
“It sounds crazy, but I’m just so desensitized to shootings or just things like this that I genuinely was like, okay, this is happening and it was scary, but I don’t think I really realized how scared I was until after,” said Danielle Schaefer, a junior studying marketing strategy and economics and Residential Assistant at UNCW. “Because it’s just so normal.”
Schaefer said Thursday was no normal day on campus. Tensions were already high due to protests and counter-protests happening on campus that week mainly centered around a large rock on campus students are allowed to paint and change the appearance of, known as a spirit rock. Students had painted in honor of far-right commentator Charlie Kirk. According to Schaefer, the rock was painted over multiple times with different paints and different quotes, some of which were Kirk’s own words denouncing empathy.
“People were just battling it out with different quotes and whatever and it got to the point where, for the next 2 nights, it genuinely got painted over so many times,” Schaefer said.
“The Turning Point USA student organization began painting the rock at approximately 10:30 a.m. and finished painting at approximately 6 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 15. The other students approached the rock and proceeded to paint over part of it at approximately 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept 16. The Turning Point USA students remained at the rock until 6 p.m. at which time they stepped away from the rock providing full access for other individuals to paint.” UNCW officials said.
UNCW also said while they encourage students to leave all artwork on the spirit rock for 24 hours, this policy is not a requirement and is not enforced as the rock is used as an outlet for free expression at the university. As of Monday, Sept. 22, the university suspended use of the spirit rock and paused freedom of expression events.
”We are taking this step as part of comprehensive measures to de-escalate concerns about safety that emerged last week,” UNCW said on their website.
UNCW said this measure will remain in effect indefinitely until the university can assess how to move forward thoughtfully.
That Wednesday night, Schaefer said one of her residents told her they were evacuated from the library and it was not a drill.
“There were a ton of cops, not even UNCW police department, but New Hanover police department, the sheriffs, all those were coming in as well,” Schaefer said.\
Schaefer said about two hours after the evacuation, the university issued a statement saying the evacuation was due to an unfounded bomb threat and an all clear was issued.
Schaefer said she was woken up Thursday to the sound of another RA banging on her door.
”I woke up to one of the other RAs banging on my door and calling me and she was like, Danielle get up, there’s been a shooting,” Shaefer said.
According to Shaefer, she and her co-worker made sure all students in their buildings were safe and in lockdown. She said one of the Freshmen she was with claimed this was their third active shooter they had lived through.
“I think everyone’s just been so desensitized to this and, like, we had just seen so much hate for the past week that we kind of were, like, I mean, we all kind of knew it was gonna happen or something was gonna happen,” Schaefer said.
“As a mother, it was absolutely my worst fear come true. I’m not just the mom of a college student, I’m married to a teacher, and my other daughter is a teacher too. School safety is something that weighs on my heart every single day. So when I got the call about UNCW going into lockdown for an ‘active’ shooter threat, my world stopped. Danielle is not only my daughter, she’s also an RA, which means she had a whole building of students looking to her for guidance in that moment. I just kept thinking, she’s still just a college kid herself, and yet she has all this responsibility on her shoulders in a situation no one should ever have to face.” said Natalie O’Neill, Shaefer’s mother.
Natalie O’Neill said being away from her daughter was unbearable. She said UNCW had a longer response time when it came to sending information and alerts to parents, which caused panic and confusion amongst parents.
“On the UNCW Moms Facebook group, you could feel the fear and frustration pouring out. Moms were updating each other, clinging to any bit of information, and it was clear so many of us shared the same thought: this is the nightmare we pray never happens. Even though it turned out to be a false alarm, the emotional toll was very real, and it showed how unprepared we still are for the kind of communication parents desperately need in moments like this,” O’Niel said.
