Our Voice
Five more college students have been killed in school shootings in the past few weeks. A further 11 were injured. Another gunman has killed himself.
What’s going on here?
Shootings on college and high school campuses have been on the rise lately, particularly since the incident at Virginia Tech last year. They are occurring all over the nation, in universities of all sizes, with people of all walks of life causing them.
Sometimes there is a clear-cut cause of the incidents, such as a student suffering from depression, treated or not. Sometimes people who nobody saw any problem with are the shooters. There is no discernable pattern.
We’re not trying to scare anyone by printing this, and we’re not trying to suggest that anyone on the GCSU campus would do anything like this. We’re simply trying to bring to everyone’s attention what is going on around the nation. It never hurts to be cautious.
However, even though these incidents are on the rise, they are proving far less fatal than the shooting at Virginia Tech. Schools are responding much more quickly in the case of emergencies, as are the authorities. Schools are being much more careful with security and are keeping a closer eye on students that have showed possible dangerous tendencies.
GCSU has set up the Connect-Ed program to alert students by text message if there is anything going wrong on campus to allow students to get to safety. E-mails are also sent instantly at the first sign of trouble.
But what of those first few seconds before anyone has time to respond? What can we do about that?
All we can do is prevent it. And everyone can do his or her part to accomplish that.
If you hear anyone talking about doing something that might hurt someone, report it to counseling services immediately. Tell that student to get help. Tell somebody so that something can be done preemptively.
If someone you know is suffering from depression, which has been traced back to several of the shooting incidents, recommend they seek help in counseling services or from a psychiatrist. Let them know there is help out there, and encourage them to seek it.
The safety of the students and faculty on campus should be on the forefront of everyone’s mind, and it is our obligation to ensure that incidents like the one in Illinois and Virginia Tech do not repeat themselves here.
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Feb 22 2008. Filed under Opinion, Our Voice.
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