Thoughts on the Virginia Tech Tragedy

I think the first thing that jumped into everyone’s minds today, when it became clear of the extent of today’s massacre, was the shocking tragedy that occurred just eight years ago this Friday; the Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colorado. I had planned on writing up something like this on Friday in remembrance of the Columbine tragedy, but in the wake of today’s events, now is probably just as good a time as ever.

I was a high school sophomore when Columbine occurred. It changed my entire high school experience. After that, there was a different aura around my school, as was the case in most, if not all, high schools. It seemed the deans didn’t trust students anymore and students looked around wondering who would “do it here?”

I can remember sitting in the hallway with my friends in the days, weeks, months, and even years after Columbine watching some of the Goth students with suspicion. We had a list; a list of the most likely suspects should it happen “here.” I remember sitting in Geometry class with another friend, as well quietly discussed how we would hide, barricade the door, or run to the North staircase if someone began shooting in the hallway outside. I remember the discussion about the possibility about putting in metal detectors.

Some of us felt safe. A private Catholic high school in New York City; it wouldn’t happen here, just in “redneck rural America,” secretly we weren’t so sure. We weren’t so certain it couldn’t happen in our high school. We had the loners, the bullied, and the tortured, just like the rest of them. We had the cliques, the jocks, the popular groups and the unpopular “freaks.” They existed here too.

Even after I graduated high school and went to college, it crossed my mind. Would it be in this building? If it is, can I jump out the window? Where will we hide? If it happened somewhere else, how will we know? Will I be able to get from here to my car without having to pass somewhere where I’d get shot?

I never obsessed over it; only thought about it rarely. The tragedy is, however, that it had to cross my mind. I’m sure it crossed other people’s minds too. Columbine changed my generations’ views on school. They weren’t 100% safe. We could be shot in our classrooms. We could actually be SHOT while sitting in our classroom. It was a staggeringly frightening thought.

Still, we went on. We had our high school dramas, our proms, our dances, our detentions. We had our teenager lives and our college experiences. We had our keggers, our happy hours, our fraternity and sorority mixers, and our dorm parties. We lived normally, despite the fact we were the first generation that had to really worry about the possibility of being shot dead in our school; that just going to learn can get you killed.

Here’s an interesting realization; the freshman class of 1999, the first full school year after the Columbine massacre are graduating college next month.

Let’s hope and pray that our children will not have to live with the same fears we did…and that we, as parents, NEVER have to relive the horrors we did as teenagers, but this time perpetrated against our own children.

Just the thought gives me the chills.