(NEW YORK) — Nearly 24 years ago Nancy Hopkins, a molecular biologist and MIT professor, alerted her colleagues and supervisors about sexism she says she experienced on campus.

Her letter and the ensuing movement were highlighted in a Boston Globe article by Kate Zernike and later revealed similar hostile work environments on campuses across the country.

ABC News’ Linsey Davis spoke to Hopkins and Zernike about Zernike’s new book, “The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the Fight for Women in Science,” which chronicles the issue.

ABC NEWS LIVE: Nancy, I’d like to start with you. You’ve obviously made great strides in your cancer research. You were looking at the world of science like a meritocracy, right? And then there was a certain point where you realized the sexual harassment, the assault was not necessarily just an exception for you, but more like the rule. At what point did you realize that it was a pattern for not just you, but many of your female colleagues?

NANCY HOPKINS: I took about 20 years. I was so certain that if you did a good enough experiment, none of it would matter. So I saw it from the beginning, but I didn’t know what it was. And I just thought, ‘Well, it’s just some obstacle. I did something wrong. Maybe I ran into a difficult person. I’ll just keep going. Keep going.’ And it really took a while. So after a while, I said, ‘Well, wait a minute.’

You know, this is really a little too difficult. And some of the things are sort of obvious that have to do with being a woman. But I didn’t think they mattered. But there were some I just didn’t know. And so I started looking at how other women were treated. And that was what opened my eyes to it. I said, “Wait a minute, that woman is just as good as that man. How come he’s the genius and she’s sort of invisible?” I mean, this doesn’t make sense, really. And I had to see enough examples so that I really finding it was true and there weren’t many women, so it took a long time. But the interesting thing was that even when I saw it was really all those other women, I still was able to convince myself that it wasn’t happening to me and that my problems were some individual problem or whatever. I done something wrong [it was] somebody else, something very hard to face [or] the fact that this was happening to you.

ABC NEWS LIVE: I’m curious if I can play devil’s advocate here for a moment. At what point, because you said that yourself initially you thought, ‘well, maybe it’s just me, maybe it’s just an issue that I’m having.’ At what point did you decide and really you were clear that it was about your gender and not you personally?

HOPKINS: Well, I think it took about 15 years to realize it was all other women except me. And then it made this big switch. And then I realized, yes, OK, it’s happening to me, but I can still overcome this if I can just get through this one difficult problem.

And then there was the last straw moment when I just realized I couldn’t continue to actually work that way. I’d run out of energy to fight these battles.

ABC NEWS LIVE: At what point did you realize? Was it kind of like a call, knock at a door when you went to a female colleague and said, are you having these struggles? Like how did that all transpire?

HOPKINS: I just had all local administrators and I wrote a letter to the president of MIT. I said, “Dear sir, I’m sure you’re a well-meaning person, but I see you’re discriminating against all the women faculty here, and I think you ought to do something about it.”

And so I really looked up to this woman, but I thought she’ll think I’m a loser and a wimp, but I’m going to show her the letter anyway and just see whether it’s dignified and the president might even read it. So we go out to lunch and we’re sitting at this tiny little table, and I’m watching her and she’s reading so slow. So slow. And I’m waiting for to say, “oh, that Hopkins woman, she’s no good.”

She puts it down on the table and she says, “I’d like to sign this letter. And I think we should go see the president because I believe this for a long time.”

ABC NEWS LIVE: That’s great.

HOPKINS: And that changed my life. It changed MIT. And we looked at each other and we said, “I suppose it could be others who feel the same way. Do you?” Well, guess what? They were.

ABC NEWS LIVE: How did you first hear about Nancy’s story?

KATE ZERNIKE: So I was a reporter at the Boston Globe and I just got a very generic tip. I still to this day can’t remember where it came, through several people. Call this woman Nancy Hopkins, there’s something about discrimination and women at MIT. And I thought, OK, it’s 1999. It’s probably a lawsuit or something. How bad could it be, right? 1999, we’re on the verge of a new century. So I called Nancy and she said that they had produced this report about discrimination. But what really got me was that MIT was going to acknowledge that it had discriminated.

And the reason they had done this is because the women had been so careful to gather data, to gather stories, to make their case. And the president at MIT said this is a real problem.

ABC NEWS LIVE: Were you all expecting the headlines and the shockwaves when you first revealed this?

ZERNIKE: No, I thought it was a great story because, as I said, MIT was admitting this. I loved the way these women had gone about this scientifically. It just struck me as this very meaty story, and I was really impressed by them. But I didn’t think like it showed up on the front page. So I did a story for the Boston Globe, which shows up on the front page. I didn’t think it was going to show up on the front page in The New York Times two days later.

HOPKINS: I thought, OK, but it’s just these kind of places like Harvard and MIT, which think they’re so great, and that’s it. But it didn’t occur to me, actually, that it was true everywhere. I mean, this is, how naive can you be? I’m sort of embarrassed to say it, but I have to be honest here. So then when Kate’s article came out, this deluge happened. I mean, it was just overwhelming. And women were writing from all over the country and the world and saying, thank you. Thank you for telling the story. It’s my story.

ABC NEWS LIVE: And this was back in 1999. Why did you decide now was the time? We’re talking more than two decades later for a book to really expand on this.

ZERNIKE: So I was, in 2018, I was watching the fallout from the MeToo movement. And I thought, OK, it’s great that we are understanding now that this egregious sexual assault can happen. That’s great. That’s obviously a huge revolution, but it struck me that this marginalization, that the women at MIT had talked about in some ways was a more pervasive problem and a more stubborn problem because it is so hard to see. And so I thought if I could tell this really intimate story about what happened to Nancy and these women, people would begin to understand the problem and do something about it.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(ORLANDO, Fla.) — The families of 24-year-old Dylan Lyons and 9-year-old T’yonna Major, who were gunned down in a series of shootings near Orlando, Florida, came together in grief at a heart-wrenching news conference Thursday, sobbing, hugging and leaning on each other for support.

After embracing T’yonna’s father, Gary Lyons said through tears that his son, TV reporter Dylan Lyons, “Wanted to be the next David Muir.”

“He always told me he wanted to tell stories for the people,” Gary Lyons said.

“He’s a devoted son and it’s impossible to describe the relationship he had with my wife. I was often the third-wheel,” he joked.

“Dylan so much wanted to be a husband and a father,” Gary Lyons said, and said his son “was a stand-in father” to his nieces and nephews.

“I wish I could’ve taken the bullet,” he said, weeping.

T’yonna’s father, Tokiyo Major, said, “My soul is gone.”

“I can’t believe it. My poor baby,” T’yonna’s mother, Brandi Major, said

The 9-year-old “wanted to be remembered for the love that she gave,” her mom said. “She also wanted equality for homeless people and she wanted to give to all the little children.”

“She was my heart, my angel, and I’m gonna miss her so much,” Brandi Major said.

“She was the best little girl. She did gymnastics and she excelled in that,” she said.

Brandi Major then broke down in tears, saying, “I can’t do this,” before leaving the room halfway through the news conference.

Dylan Lyons’ mother, Beth Lyons, called her son a “special, special soul.”

“Whatever he could do to help others, he was there,” Mary Lyons said, as she clutched a pillow with a photo of her and her son. She said he gave it to her last year on Mother’s Day.

She said when her son died, “I died, too.”

“He was supposed to bury me. I was not supposed to bury him,” she said.

Dylan Lyons’ fiancee, Casey Fite, said, “Dylan and I shared a love people search their whole life for. True love.”

“You see gun violence all over the country and you never think it’ll happen to your family,” Fite said, overcome with emotion. “Life is too short and I would do anything to have my Dylan back in my arms.”

The shootings began on the morning of Feb. 22 when 19-year-old Keith Moses allegedly shot and killed 38-year-old Nathacha Augustin, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.

That afternoon, Lyons, a reporter for Orlando’s Spectrum News 13, was shot and killed and photojournalist Jesse Walden was shot and injured while they were reporting on Augustin’s killing, the sheriff’s office said.

After Lyons and Walden were shot, T’yonna was gunned down in her nearby home, and T’yonna’s mother was shot and injured, according to the sheriff’s office.

Moses was arrested on Feb. 22 in connection with all three shooting scenes and he faces charges including three counts of first-degree murder.

The families’ attorney, Mark NeJame, also spoke at the news conference, calling out Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Sen. Rick Scott. Mark NeJame said the politicians are focused on their own ambitions, and if they “truly cared about these victims,” they could have reached out to the families and addressed gun violence and “reasonable and sane gun legislation.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(LANSFORD, Penn.) — An explosive device was found in a checked piece of luggage at Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley International Airport on Monday, according to a criminal complaint.

The passenger, Mark Muffley of Lansford, Pennsylvania, is now in custody, and an FBI agent testified that Muffley confirmed he was aware he had the explosive in his bag.

Muffley, 40, was set to take an Allegiant flight from eastern Pennsylvania to Florida’s Orlando Sanford International Airport.

The device hidden in the bag’s lining was a circular compound, about 3 inches in diameter, that had two fuses and powder concealed in wax paper and plastic wrap, according to the criminal complaint.

The “powder is suspected to be a mixture of flash powder and the dark granulars that are used in commercial grade fireworks,” the complaint said. “The black powder and flash powder are susceptible to ignite from heat and friction and posed a significant risk to the aircraft and passengers.”

The bag also had “a can of butane, a lighter, a pipe with white powder residue, a wireless drill with cordless batteries, and two GFCI outlets taped together with black tape,” the complaint said.

Sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News that based on a preliminary assessment, the device contained flammable, explosive components but was not operational and not constructed to go off in flight. The investigation into the suspect’s background is ongoing to better understand why he allegedly packed these materials, the sources said.

The device was detected during “routine screening,” when the suitcase triggered an alarm when it entered the baggage screening unit, the Transportation Security Administration said in a statement. While inspecting the baggage, a TSA officer “located an item inside the suitcase that appeared to be suspicious and was believed to possibly be a live explosive device,” the agency said.

An airport spokesperson said the suspicious package was discovered shortly after 11 a.m. Monday and the west side of the airport’s main terminal was shut down.

Muffley was paged over the airport’s public system to come to the security desk, the criminal complaint said. Five minutes later, security cameras showed Muffley leaving the airport.

The package was removed from the airport and the closed portion of the terminal reopened shortly before 2 p.m., the airport spokesperson said.

FBI and local law enforcement bomb technicians who responded to the scene determined that the item “was indeed a live explosive device,” TSA said.

Muffley was arrested at his home Monday night, the FBI said. He’s charged with possession of an explosive in an airport and possessing, or attempting to place, or attempting to have placed an explosive or incendiary device on an aircraft.

Muffley made his first federal court appearance via videoconference Thursday for a probable cause and detention hearing.

FBI Special Agent Eddie Garcia testified that Muffley confirmed he was aware he had the explosive in his bag along with lithium batteries, butane and a small torch lighter, and he knew they were all prohibited.

Muffley’s public defender, Jonathan McDonald, argued the device was “just a firework in a bag.”

He claimed it was a commercial product and its only addition was a wick designed to burn slowly and that there was no way for it to explode unless someone took a lighter to one of the wicks. During cross examination, McDonald asked Garcia if the device was a firework. Garcia replied, “It’s an explosive. It may be a firework.”

Prosecutor Sherri Stephan argued that it doesn’t matter whether the device is a firework, because it meets the federal definition of an explosive and it posed a significant threat to the plane and passengers.

She also claimed that after the device was discovered and Muffley was called to airport security, Muffley allegedly called his girlfriend to pick him up from the airport. The prosecutor said that once Muffley was in her car, he changed his phone number in an attempt to not be tracked.

Stephan also said Muffley admitted to using drugs including methamphetamine and that the pipe found in his suitcase had meth residue in it. Stephan said he had several previous run-ins with the law, including having his probation and bail revoked on multiple occasions. Stephan said Muffley had “shown a pattern of not being able to follow the rules of release.”

Judge Pamela Carlos granted detention, remanding Muffley until his next hearing.

Muffley did not speak during the hearing. When prosecutors argued he was a danger to his community and a risk of flight, he mouthed, “No I’m not.”

ABC News’ Jason Volack, Will McDuffie and Trevor Ault contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(LANSING, Mich.) — Weeks after eight students were shot on campus, three fatally, Michigan State University announced plans to install locks on the doors of more than 1,300 classrooms on campus. MSU aims to have all the locks installed by the beginning of the fall semester.

A gunman opened fire at two locations on Michigan State University’s East Lansing campus on Feb. 13. The suspect was identified as a 43-year-old man not affiliated with the university. None of the doors he entered were locked.

The university announced a number of new security measures in the wake of the shooting, saying the door locks are not the only changes to campus safety that will be made and that officials will ask for feedback from the community again.

MSU said it will add more cameras around campus in addition to the more than 2,000 cameras it already has in place. New cameras will be added to areas that do not have adequate coverage, including academic buildings and all Green Light phones that are already on campus.

Starting March 13, MSU’s main East Lansing campus will lock its buildings earlier every night, requiring key card access by students, faculty and staff from 6 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. Currently, buildings are locked at 11 p.m.

By the beginning of the next academic year, MSU will require all students and employees to undergo active violent intruder training. The training is currently voluntary.

Classroom doors were unlocked during the Parkland, Uvalde and MSU school shootings. The three school shootings show the challenges of securing public places that aren’t heavily defended.

Limiting entry points to school buildings, reinforcing main entrances and locking classroom doors are among the measures schools have adopted as part of safety plans.

A potentially deadly shooting at a California elementary school was averted in 2017 when the gunman left school grounds after apparently being unable to access classrooms, according to authorities.

A 2020 simulation by the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency found that locked classroom doors can lock have a significant impact on the outcome of an active school shooter event.

Classes have since resumed at MSU after the shooting.

The university said it would seek an internal and an external third-party review of its response to the Feb. 13 shooting.

“While we are grateful for the commendations and for our preparation, there is more we can do. Therefore, we will soon conduct an after-action evaluation of how our emergency personnel and university leaders responded to the crisis,” MSU said in a statement.

It plans to make the third-party report recommendations public.

“We will update the campus community as these safety improvements and enhancements roll out. Our first week back was an emotional one, but we hope you find strength in being back together,” MSU said.

ABC News’ Meredith Deliso contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.