Ever since the '66 shooting perpetrated by Charles Whitman in the University of Texas bell tower, there have been more and more incidents of violence on school campuses (see HERE). These incidents culminated in the Virginia Tech Massacre and, more recently, a stabbing incident at UCLA last Thursday. The latter of these outbreaks hit especially close to home for me and inspired me to do this blog post on the subject of violence at universities across America. The victim of this particular episode was stabbed five times, and had her throat slit after being chosen at random by a deranged student, luckily she was rushed to UCLA medical center in time for her to become stable and survive the incident. She also attended my high school, went to her senior prom with one of my closest friends, was really tight with my sister, and was my teammate on several science competition teams (see Science Bowl). When an incident such as this affects someone that you know well, it reveals to you the true severity of violent crimes at the university level.
After I was informed of what had happened, I instinctively asked; why would someone do such a thing? The answer is the same as it always is in cases of school violence; mental distress of the perpetrator. The professors of the suspect in this case reported the student to the UCLA administration multiple times, citing e-mails in which it was clear to at least one professor that the suspect was in need of help. The question then becomes; why, after having gone through an incident like that of Virginia Tech, do university administrations continue to ignore warning signs pointing out the troubled students. Colleges and universities across the nation need to do a better job of recognizing these warning signs, taking these warning signs as serious threats, and acting upon these signs in order to prevent further rises in violent crimes on university campuses.
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