Maya Little

Rapid Disturbance Interrupts MC during Midterm Week

MC’s librarians and students engage in a busy day in O’Malley due to midterm testing, but was later disturbed by a loud scream, an alarm and running.

The student walked up the steps to the fifth floor of O’Malley carrying a black duffle bag. Once the student reached the top of the stairs he shouted.

“Stop that!,” said the boy while stretching his arm toward the back of the library and pointing his finger.

The student looked to be Caucasian and a bit tall. He wore blue jeans, a black jacket and sneakers of some sort while carrying a big black duffle bag on his shoulder. His name was never identified.

“I was puzzled when he said that,” said MC freshman Malin Schaemkie

“The library was so quiet and he was so loud,” said MC sophomore Andrea Nyback

After shouting and pointing, the boy walked through the turnstile without taking one look around and continued walking.

“Excuse me?,” said Melinda Creaney, the librarian who was sitting at the circulation desk behind the computer.

The boy continued walking. Once he reached the detector the alarm sounded. Looking confused, the boy hesitated.

“Excuse me! Excuse me!,” said Creaney.

After hearing the alarm sound and the tone of the librarian voice change, the boy no longer looked confused. He ran towards the door and never looked back while gripping the black duffle bag.

The entire fifth floor stood in shock at what just happen.

“It was like something off of a movie,” said MC sophomore Tyrek Barney. “Everything just happened so fast.”

Creaney came from behind her desk and addressed the reference librarian on duty, Heather Dodge. According to Dodge, minutes before the incident she was helping him find a religion book and that he entered the library with another boy who she was “never able to identify”.

John Banta, a MC student who was walking pass Hayden Hall , stated that he saw the boy kick and take off both of his shoes. The boy ran down the steps while MC security chased him down to the subway.

“They didn’t catch him,” said Creaney. “Once he is off school property they don’t care”.

According to Creaney, the student did not take his medication for the day and consequently heard voices throughout the day.

The boy always goes into O’Malley, but this was his first time stealing a book.

“He always gets agitated,” said Creaney. “Once he was agitated about waiting in line to get help at the reference desk. I wasn’t concerned that he stole a book; I just didn’t want him to hurt himself. I wanted to calm him down”.

Assistant Director of Counseling and Health Services, Jennifer McArdle looked to be concerned and stated that she did not know who the boy was and did not hear about the incident. After asking for more detailed information on the student McArdle said, “We can’t force people to take medication, but we have to make sure everyone has good experiences here at MC. If we hear about students who need our help we try to get them in”.

Some MC students showed concern for the boy, while others fear  for their on-campus safety.

“I hope he is alright,” said MC student Alvin Porter.

“He needs help. I hope the school is giving that to him. He could not only hurt himself, but possibly other people. This is serious stuff,” said MC student Yardley Keshinover.

MC security did not bother giving information about the incident and the shoeless student who dissolved into the subway has not been seen in O’Malley since.