On Memorial Day, we remember sacrifices — and don't really update Navel Gazing. But since you're here, how's this for sacrifice: Second-year UC Irvine student Christopher Proffitt has penned a letter to the campus taking full responsibility for causing the campus to go into lock down last week when he was spotted with an imitation firearm.
It sounds like it was all caused by some harmless fun:
I was picked up at school around 1:30 p.m. to go play airsoft
with a few friends. I walked out of my dorm and was consequently seen
with my airsoft rifle as I walked to the Mesa Court parking lot. We
left the campus and entered an area with no cell phone service. We were
engaged in our airsoft game, completely unaware of the events that were
taking place on campus. It was only when we were finished and returned
to the cars that we viewed our cell phones with the Zot Alert and
numerous other messages alerting us about the situation. I contacted
the police immediately, went to them directly, was questioned and
ultimately released.
But Proffitt then takes all the blame:
My release in no way excuses my disregard for campus policy and the
unease that my actions caused my fellow students. No one should ever
have to walk around worrying about whether or not they may be in
danger. We attend universities and colleges to further our education
and to become intelligent individuals who make intelligent and
level-headed decisions. My decision to walk to a car holding my airsoft
gun was absolutely foolish.
He personally apologizes to the students and faculty, Chancelor Michael Drake (“who had to make the decision to lock down the school”) and the student who was mistakenly detained by police during the panic. Proffitt could have just let the whole thing blow over — after all, he didn't mean to set the whole campus on alert — but this letter show's he's got more class than that.
Full text at New University.
