When Kimveer Gill entered Montreal's Dawson College last Wednesday
wielding three guns, killing one student and sending 19 to hospital
before turning a gun on himself, Ryerson student Amanda Redhead sat
glued to her TV set, watching people from her former school running
for their lives.

"I'm shocked and I'm really saddened by something like this because
it makes me see it can happen anywhere— it doesn't matter what country
or city you are in," said Redhead, the fourth-year student who is Ryerson's former athlete of the year.

She also attended Dawson College, where her basketball team won the porvincial gold medal and went on to represent the province at the
Canadian Colleges Athletic Association Nationals in 2002.

Others in the Ryerson community also had connections to the college
they remembered as welcoming and safe.

"Once it hits that close to home, you start seeing everything else in
a different way," said Meaghan Derynck, 22, who spent three years
studying at Dawson College before earning her Ryerson radio and
television arts degree.

Derynck later became a production intern for the department.

She attended the same Montreal-area high school as Gill. She does
not remember ever speaking to him – they were not in the same grade.

But she did bring her high school yearbook into work for colleagues
who were interested in seeing his graduation photograph, although Gill
never graduated from high school.

"When talking to friends and family members back home, we try to
maintain a certain level of normalcy and try not to relive it or talk
about it too much," said Derynck.

Fourth-year image arts student Alice Phieu is also a Dawson alumna.

Phieu found out about the shooting via an online message board 15
minutes after it happened and said she was worried for her younger
brother who was in class at the time.

"His teacher kept the students in the classroom. They closed the door
and blocked it with a cabinet and basically stayed in there until the
cops came and knocked on the door, ready to evacuate," said Phieu who
was frantic until she confirmed that he was safe two hours later.

"I'm really disturbed because I'm very attached to that school," said
Phieu. She expressed fond memories of her time there and said it was a
great community.

Maura Estrada, a staff member of Ryerson's board of governors and
assistant to the dean of the faculty of community services, served a
term at Dawson College as assistant to director general from 1993-96.

Estrada drew similarities between Dawson and Ryerson.

"Even though it was a large school, it was a small community," she said.
 
Both schools are also comparable in terms of their positions in the
downtown core of a major city, being interconnected with the subway
system, she said.

Estrada heard the news on her car radio while crossing the Champlain
Bridge, heading into downtown Montreal, and like many others in the
community, experienced "disbelief and total shock."

One thing that came to mind was the 1989 massacre at the École
Polytechnique, she said. That was the terrifying murder of 14 women by
Marc Lépine that has been commemorated on Dec. 6 every year since.

"It would be interesting to have the opinion of someone from the
École Polytechnique," said Estrada.

"I believe that is still a very
real part of everybody's daily life that works there (in those
schools)."

As for Dawson students, Estrada said the long-term effects will be
reliving the events from that day on.

"People seem fine in dealing with it but may have a meltdown a year
later. They will either become angry or they will accept that everyday
is a gift," she said.

"A person can seem fine but they are still in shock-- that shock can last."

One positive thing that came from the experience, said Derynck, is
the rapid rekindling of old friendships. "Suddenly we had that
connection again, it was like we hadn't lost touch over the years
because it drew us back to being there."

This is an edited version of the story that first appeared in print in the Ryersonian on September 20, 2006.