In class we talked about events from the 1990s that affected us as young adults. There was a bit of a debate going on about whether Columbine and events like it affected our generation.
Today, I opened up the University Daily Kansan to yet another tragic event that occurred at a university.
Yesterday, The University of North Carolina's student body president, Eve Carson, was found shot to death in a city street.
Police said the crime appeared to be random.
While not a mass shooting like the event at Virginia Tech last year or the shooting at Northern Illinois University in February, the death of this girl still hits home because it's relatable, it happened at a university just like ours.
In this same newspaper was an opinion column about how the author thinks we can "stop" these events from happening. I don't want to go into his proposed method; I just want to call attention to one sentence. His lead was, "After finding my seat in Budig Hall for the first time, I realized that the scene was probably very similar to the one that preceded Seung-Hui Cho's rampage at Virginia Tech last year, and I resolved to find a seat closer to an exit."
Do these events really affect us this much?
I could of course be completely wrong, but part of me thinks that he was just saying this to grab our attention, not because he actually did it.
I for one have never walked into a classroom wondering where I could hide if someone were to walk in with a gun.
It's scary, but I don't live my life thinking about it everyday.
If it's more personal, such as if you knew someone in the shootings, I could see how these events could affect you.
Yet, as a generation, while these events make us sad when we read about them in the newspaper, after we put that newspaper in the recycle bin, I don't think these events continue affecting us.
I have never thought about whether I am safe or not in school. You're right I don't relate the events to my life. I too find them sad but I can't say I have ever entered a lecture hall looking for the seat that is closest to an emergency exit. I would be curious if the students at Universities where such tragic events have taken place think about such consequences on a regular basis. Very interesting article, thanks.
I can agree with you and say that I have never picked a seat based on whether I can get out of the classroom quickly if a gunman comes in. However, I think these types of things do affect us and have some sort of impact on us. When I saw the news of the shooting I did stop and wonder about something like this happening in Lawrence. We walk home from Mass. street and the Hawk/Wheel area and sometimes by ourselves. I think this makes me think about just walking by myself at night more than about a school shooting. So I think it affects us, but not the same way as NIU or Virginia Tech.