A large American flag hangs above where conservative influencer Charlie Kirk was assassinated at Utah Valley University. People walk by, stop and stare, snap a photo and point out where they stood when the shot rang out. There’s a makeshift memorial, where people placed flowers, signs and small American flags.
And for the first time since Kirk’s death, students headed to classes, ate lunch in the cafeteria and tried to move on as best they could.
Aliyah Wright, a freshman at UVU, was there when Kirk was shot.
“When I was walking to my first class, in my head, I was replaying running out of the school after the shooting,” she said. “I’m like, the last time I was in this hallway, I just watched a man die.”
When she arrived at her first class, she said she cried silently in the back. Some classmates checked on her to make sure she was OK.
“It was such an intense feeling walking back onto campus, but it definitely felt like the professors care a lot about the students and making sure everyone's OK and taking care of themselves,” Wright said.
There’s more security on campus, too. Police and Utah Highway Patrol officers monitored the site where Kirk was killed.
Caleb Larson has been a student at UVU for a couple of years and was also in the crowd when the shooting happened. He said he’s glad to be back around people and feels safe on campus.
“I feel like they did a good job of upping the security here,” he said. “Of course, there will always be those loose cannons, but I'm like, they're everywhere you go, no matter where you are.”
Some people did not come back to campus. On social media, some UVU students claimed they were too scared to return or planned to drop out, transfer or take online classes only.
“It's traumatic, it's trauma, so it's perfectly understandable why you would still feel shaken, like even if it does supposedly feel like a safer area, it can still feel scary having to witness something like that,” Larson said.
There’s a solemn feeling on campus, said student Connor Doyle, but also a lot of support, whether that’s mental health resources, staff passing out candy or the reminders posted around the school that the students matter.
While the support for students has always been there, Doyle said he appreciates how it's risen to the forefront.
“Our community's bonded a lot more now, and sad that has to come through tragedy,” he said. “That's usually how, as Americans, we bond, and it's a strong, powerful motivator that I'm pretty sure will bring UVU to even greater heights.”
Orem calls itself “Family City USA,” and freshman Collin Elder said that community will be essential to moving on. He said going back will be hard but necessary.
“This is where I think that Orem sense of family is going to come in, because everybody there is going to need support, myself included,” he said. “It's been a really rough week, and I think that family connection is just going to get stronger, and that's why I think it's important for everybody to go back.”
The school is offering expanded mental health resources through the end of the week. The FBI’s Salt Lake City Division has also created a Virtual Family Assistance Center for people who were at the event to get additional resources and pick up their belongings.
