Talk about a wake-up call.

After the Virginia Tech University incident, where 33 people died — including the gunman — it doesn’t take much to freak us out when it comes to anything that sounds like it could be another campus shooting.

We feel for those brave students who were in the building that day, although, thankfully, it was just a false alarm. We can’t imagine the shock and destroyed peace of mind this unnecessary prank must have caused.

One classroom even had two male students courageous enough to barricade the door with desks and chairs. How lucky we are to be surrounded by people willing to make efforts like that in case of a real emergency.

On the other side, how unlucky we are to have students who would think of this kind of a trick to pull. Even if it wasn’t intended to send these people into immediate panic, it’s pretty unrealistic to think this was any kind of accident.

This isn’t a joke. Someone was injured, and people fled thinking they were literally running for their lives. To a trained ear these fireworks may not have sounded like gunshots, but these students reacted as any reasonable person would.

Things aren’t the same as they were a year ago, before the Virginia Tech tragedy. Situations like this cannot and should not be taken lightly. The East Lansing and MSU police departments deserve recognition. They were on the scene within minutes and the entire situation was handled extremely well.

Students received e-mails about the happenings within an hour. Such a quick response to the campus community should make students, faculty and staff feel safe at MSU, as well as show the competancy of university administrators.

Thanks to university officials for being so transparent and responding quickly to an extremely nervous community. While students might not have received text messages, technically an emergency was not declared, which is why the system was put into place.

The people who are responsible for setting off the fireworks in the stairwell of Berkey Hall need to be found and punished for their actions.

Why they would do such a thing is unknown. Rumors are flying; some think it was to get out of class or an exam, but no one is really sure. There is no reasoning behind something like this. These actions are inexcusable.

A price or punishment cannot be placed on the emotions that the more than 100 students have experienced through this last week. The perpetrators need to be disciplined for what they’ve done to their community members and peers.