Advance Titan-May 9, 2019

The advancetitan.com VOL. 124, ADVANCE- NO. 24 May 9, 2019 INDEPENDENTTITAN STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN OSHKOSH CAMPUSES Stay Connected The AdvanceTitan 5K for mental health awareness by Megan Behnke taking their own life.” @atitan Welcome speaker and for- [email protected] mer running back for the San Seven hundred partici- Francisco 49ers and Green @theadvancetitan pants showed up for the an- Bay Packers Harry Sydney nual 5K for Mental Health said people have to under- and Suicide Awareness at stand they can all make a [email protected] Oshkosh North High School difference. last Saturday. “It all starts with one per- The National Alliance on son,” Sydney said. “When Mental Illness hosted the you walk in and go out there, Top Stories 5K. NAMI provides educa- trying to make a difference, tion, advocacy and support you can change things. I can to help people cope with change things. But it starts Opinion mental illness. with one person, regardless NAMI Executive Director of how big or small.” Vacinations Mary Lord Janness said the Singer-songwriter Ca- organization started in the mille Rae, who performed at The Advance-Titan staff 1970s in Madison. the event, said a little over gives their opinion about “It was started by two a year ago, someone who women whose sons suffered meant a lot to her took their whether or not UWO from schizophrenia,” Jan- own life. should have a vacination ness said. “They were look- “It’s very hard to deal policy. ing for better care for their with. There aren’t enough sons. They decided to have answers,” Rae said. “We Read more on page 7 a national conference, and just have to love each other, they felt they had a small we have to see what’s going crowd that turned out to be Campus hundreds of people, and by Connections the end of that conference, We need to end they started a national orga- “the stigma that it is nization.” so bad to talk about Hot Dogs The event is designed to when you have issues The campus community raise awareness of mental and when people are health issues and to assist struggling and for and the chancellor weigh with funding NAMI Osh- people to get help in on the age-old debate: kosh’s efforts towards local when they need it in- is a hotdog a sandwich? prevention, education and stead of taking their advocacy in Winnebago own life. County. Janness said the 5K run ”— Tracy Hans was started by a woman who HANNAH PREISSNER/ ADVANCE-TITAN lost her son to suicide. Participant Community members, UWO students and staff participate in the annual 5K for “After a few years it got mental health and suicide awareness at Oshkosh North High School. to be too much for her, and she gave it to NAMI to do,” on, ask them if they’re okay. Janness said. “We’ve been You are so loved, no matter doing it for the last several how alone you may feel.” years.” Hans said she encourages Participant Lawrence more people to participate in Brock said he wanted to runs. run because he had a fami- “I do the one in Fond du ly member pass away due to Lac, and we do this one ev- mental health issues. ery year,” Hans said. “We “It’s important to run just try to get as many people as Read more on page 11 to be supportive and raise possible.” awareness,” Brock said. “It’s Sydney said everybody good to get more people in- has the power to make a dif- volved in these things.” ference and support one an- Sports Participant Tracy Hans other. said she ran for her cousin “Every little bit helps,” Track & Field who lost his battle to mental Sydney said. “Be the per- health and committed sui- son that makes a difference. The UWO track and fi eld cide in 2014 at the age of 17. Today, you have a beauti- team came home with “Since 2015, we have been ful day. Make it the start of doing a team every year for something special.” fi ve winners from the him,” Hans said. “These WIAC championship in runs spread awareness, and La Crosse. we need to end the stigma To find out more on how that it is so bad to talk about you can support NAMI and when you have issues and get people the help and Read more on page 6 when people are struggling support they need, visit and for people to get help namioshkosh.org. when they need it instead of Geology professor shares his survival story by Joseph Schulz trying to keep warm. “I was just crouched behind a podium, He eventually ran into an of- tral Illinois for grad school.” [email protected] turning to say, ‘We need to wait,’ looked out into the crowd and fi ce, where he handed an intern He said the shooter was bat- and he started fi ring into the au- saw students running for their a notepad and pen, telling him tling mental illness, had 18 prior Valentine’s Day 2008 started ditorium with a 12-gauge sawed- lives. to write down everything he told suicide attempts and had been in out as a day like any other for Jo- off shotgun,” Peterson said. Peterson said, “It was just them. He told the intern every- and out of mental health institu- seph Peterson, but in a matter of The fi rst thing that went completely congested, people thing he saw. tions. minutes, it turned into a day that through his mind was, “This were crawling on their elbows, “I didn’t really know a lot “The reason he chose my will be ingrained in his memory has to be some kind of drill.” He trying to escape.” about guns at the time, so I was classroom on that day at that for the rest of his life. didn’t want to believe what was The gunman fi red four more like ‘tactical shotgun,’ I didn’t time is because when he was a Peterson was a graduate stu- happening. It was Valentine’s times, and as he started to reload, even know what that meant, but student, he was a teaching assis- dent at Northern Illinois Univer- Day and he had married his wife Peterson made a break for it. “I that’s what I told him,” Peterson tant for a class in sociology in sity working toward his Ph.D. a few months earlier, so his sec- kept my eye on him the entire said. that building, in that room at that He was teaching an oceanogra- ond thought was, “If I die, my time and we made eye contact,” Peterson waited about 30 time,” Peterson said. “He knew phy class for non-geology ma- wife is going to kill me.” he said. more minutes until the police on this day there’ll be about 200 jors when his life was forever He was on stage, 15 feet away As he ran for his life, the gun- arrived. They pulled him into people in that room.” Because changed. from the gunman who was man dropped the shotgun, pulled another room where he told the the shooter used to teach in that With about 10 minutes left in dressed in all black with a shirt out a GLOCK 9 mm, and shot story again. He said they didn’t exact room, he knew the back- JOSEPH PETERSON his lecture and about 200 stu- that had an AK-47 on it and the Peterson in the shoulder. notice his wound at fi rst. way in. to life; otherwise, this person’s dents packed in the lecture hall, word “terrorist” scrawled across “I realized I’d been shot, and I “The gunshot wound that I Peterson said minutes after taken more.” the door behind him opened, the top. realized I wasn’t dead, so I kept sustained was luckily a graze,” he got out of the lecture hall, the He said the experience sticks which wasn’t anything out of The gunman didn’t say a running,” he said. Peterson said. gunman jumped off the stage, with him. the ordinary. It was the middle of word, he just fi red and kept fi r- He made it out of the build- He was then taken to the hos- walked down the aisles and shot “It’s always there, but you winter, and Peterson said it was ing. Peterson’s fi rst move was ing and ran next door. He said pital and later discovered that it 13 more students, killing fi ve be- learn to manage,” Peterson said. common for students to try to cut to try the door opposite the gun- that once he was inside he went was only his classroom that was fore taking his own life. Peterson said he doesn’t have through the lecture hall to avoid man, which was locked. running down the hallway of attacked. Peterson spent the next few fl ashbacks or breakdowns be- the bitter cold. “I later found out it was a clos- that building, telling everybody “He wasn’t a student of mine,” months going to counseling. He cause of the incident, except When he turned to tell the man et so it wouldn’t’ve helped me,” in every classroom, “Lock the Peterson said. “He was a former said after struggling through this entering to leave, he realized Peterson said. doors, turn the lights off, call student from NIU who graduat- experience, he thought to him- it was far worse than a student He then jumped off the stage, 911.” ed, who had gone down to cen- self, “All right, I need to get back SHOOTING, PAGE 3 Advance-Titan May 9, 2019|2 Christina Basken - News Editor News: Local & Regional Nikki Brahm - Asst.

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