On Sept. 28 Colton Tooley fired around 10 shots on the University of Texas  campus before taking his own life.

Last Monday, Brookhaven College in Dallas shut down while police searched for a suicidal student.

Yet we are lucky to live in a country where incidents like this are rare, and here at ACU we have a police force dedicated to protection of students, staff and faculty.

Students can call 674-2911 for on-campus emergencies and  to notify security. Students may also sign up for the emergency response system to receive text message alerts about anything from canceled classes on snow days to armed intruders on and around campus.

Sign up only takes a few minutes at http://www.acu.edu/campusoffices/acu_police/acualert/.

We look at instances of school shootings and shudder, but we also need to look backward in history and be thankful for how far we have come.

Most colleges and American universities have open campuses. Visitors can come in and explore, interact with students, use the libraries and even eat in the cafeterias.

But colleges have not always gotten along so amicably with the cities in which they are located.

Colleges in Europe are surrounded by huge stone walls, and as much as tourists enjoy looking at the gargoyle-ridden walls, this was not their original purpose. They were meant to separate the townspeople and protect the scholars.

One of the most famous clashes between students and villagers occurred on Feb. 10, 1355 in Oxford, England. An argument went wrong at a tavern over the quality of the beer, and armed riots ensued. Two days later more than 90 people had died. This is now known as St. Scholastica Day.

More than 600 years later in America, U.S. marshals, military police and National Guardsmen were brought into Ole Miss to protect students during race riots over integration on Oct. 1, 1962.

But even with how far we have come, several people were recently attacked by a former student with a baseball bat right here on ACU’s Lunsford Foundation Trail.

Attacks on students can come from anywhere inside and out, and we’re thankful they are few and far between. Our prayers go out to the Tooley family and the UT community. And the ACU and Abilene police have our thanks for all they do to protect us every day.