Safety is never guaranteed
Evan Powers
Issue date: 3/5/08 Section: Editorial / Opinion
I turned on the TV recently and put CNN on to catch some news before class when I found that I was staring at the breaking news headline of another deadly shooting on a university campus. This time the tragedy occurred at Northern Illinois University, a mere 10 months after the Virginia Tech Massacre.
The first thing that went through my mind was, "This can't be happening again, Virginia Tech still feels like it was yesterday." I really couldn't believe that we had to face another tragedy of a school shooting and the loss of young people with their whole future ahead of them, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this is something that is always going to occur.
The sad truth of the matter is, as incredibly rare as it may be, school shootings are an inevitable thing in our society, and there is very little that can be done to prevent them.
In the days following the event in Illinois where Steven Kazmierczak entered a lecture hall and shot and killed five students and then himself, it was discovered that he used the same Web site to purchase the weapons for the incident as the Virginia Tech shooting perpetrator, Seung Hui-Cho. Unlike Cho, who was known around campus as an outcast, anti-social and had erratic behavior, Kazmierczak was described by his peers and the NIU administration as a "revered, award-winning student."
He was considered a committed student who was involved in after school activities and even wrote his graduate paper on peace and social justice. Kazmierczak simply stopped taking his medication, became erratic and ultimately took the lives of five people. Other than that, there were no warning signs.
A difficult thing that universities become involved in directly and in the following months of school shootings is the policy of campus security and campus safety. Kazmierczak hid his weapons in his guitar case for two days before he walked in the back door of the building where he ultimately committed the shooting.
The first thing that went through my mind was, "This can't be happening again, Virginia Tech still feels like it was yesterday." I really couldn't believe that we had to face another tragedy of a school shooting and the loss of young people with their whole future ahead of them, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this is something that is always going to occur.
The sad truth of the matter is, as incredibly rare as it may be, school shootings are an inevitable thing in our society, and there is very little that can be done to prevent them.
In the days following the event in Illinois where Steven Kazmierczak entered a lecture hall and shot and killed five students and then himself, it was discovered that he used the same Web site to purchase the weapons for the incident as the Virginia Tech shooting perpetrator, Seung Hui-Cho. Unlike Cho, who was known around campus as an outcast, anti-social and had erratic behavior, Kazmierczak was described by his peers and the NIU administration as a "revered, award-winning student."
He was considered a committed student who was involved in after school activities and even wrote his graduate paper on peace and social justice. Kazmierczak simply stopped taking his medication, became erratic and ultimately took the lives of five people. Other than that, there were no warning signs.
A difficult thing that universities become involved in directly and in the following months of school shootings is the policy of campus security and campus safety. Kazmierczak hid his weapons in his guitar case for two days before he walked in the back door of the building where he ultimately committed the shooting.
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Mike Pelonzi
posted 3/05/08 @ 9:25 AM EST
I just read your article in the Daily Collegian. I want to compliment you on your article. I agree that there is only so much money to go around and schools can only offer(as with any organization) a certain amount of protection to the students and faculty. (Continued…)
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