Bernice J. Wicks, Oral History

Recorded: May 2, 1995
Interviewed by Connie Sickels
Transcribed by Kathleen Siebert Medicus 

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[Bernice J. Wicks]: My name is Bernice J. Wicks and I live [address removed] in Kent and I taught at the University School in Kent and I retired in 1970, which means 25 years this year!

I was teaching my class at the time, I heard all these shots all over the place and people rushed in and told us to pull the curtains at the windows, get all the students away from sitting in front of the windows and just go on.

And then, they had faculty that went up on campus to keep all the students from going from our school up onto the campus. And they watched them very carefully so that they would not get up there where it was dangerous for them.

Then, I think in a short time, the classes disbanded. We didn't know what kind of shooting it was at all at that time. We had a time getting all the students back home, and that was all day Monday. I didn't know anything about the four students on that day or any of the thing about the National Guard.

I had been out of town for the weekend at a convention in Toledo. The husbands of some of the members called that night and told about the windows being broken on North Water Street. They called the next night and told about the ROTC building being burned. And so, when we came back to Kent, we were quite excited. [We] had to bring a person home who lived on University Drive, off Main Street, and everything was very quiet and we saw the uniformed National Guardsmen standing here and there to keep the peace. But, everything was very quiet and we never expected anything like what was going to happen on Monday. I think that's about what I remember of it.

[Interviewer]: What was your reaction in your class afterwards?

[Bernice J. Wicks]: Well, we didn't have any idea what was going on at all, of course, and breaking up the classes and sending all the students home was something that was quite exciting. But, our school went on when the other classes did not. We finished our term, all right, on campus.

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