A woman who survived the mass shooting at Virginia Tech nine years ago is bringing her message of safety to Boise State University.
Kristina Anderson was in French class on April 16, 2007 when another student walked into her building, chained the doors shut, and started shooting at teachers and students. Anderson was shot three times. The gunman killed 32 people and wounded 17 others before taking his own life.
Now, Anderson travels the country telling her story and encouraging people to talk about safety in schools, businesses and public spaces.
“The worst thing is not to talk about it, right, that’s when we kind of go into these dark spots of 'it will never happen here, this is too scary to talk about.' It is scary to talk about, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t talk about it,” says Anderson.
Anderson says she hopes to prevent violence before it happens, but that schools need to train their students in active shooter preparedness. She founded the Koshka Foundation for Safe Schools, a nonprofit that focuses on training and education. She is also co-founder of LiveSafe, a mobile safety platform used by colleges, corporations and hospitals.
Anderson will speak at the 2016 Idaho Threat Assessment Conference at Boise State Thursday at 8 a.m.
Find Samantha Wright on Twitter @samwrightradio
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