BY DAVE PARRO
As the NIU shooting victims are being laid to rest, the expected questions are being asked in the aftermath of the tragedy.
Are our college campuses safe enough? Are our gun laws strong enough? How can we identify disturbed students before they turn violent?
Perhaps most importantly, where do we go from here?
Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown, an NIU alum, is asking readers for ideas on how to "take this extraordinarily horrific event and make something good come from it."
To my way of thinking, we need to come up with something ambitious, something that 10 to 15 years from now people will be marvelling at the foresight that was shown, and somebody will say, "Do you know the story of how that got started?"In other words, we need a response that could one day overshadow the killings themselves.
Brown cites examples of what happened on the Virginia Tech campus after the killings there last year, including a Peace Studies Center being installed in the classroom building where most of the shooting occurred; a project called VT Engage that challenges students and staff to perform at least 10 hours of community service; and a student group called Hokies United that organized events such as a candlelight vigil and picnic that helped students heal.
How can NIU heal once students return to campus next week? How can the killings be turned into something that ensures a lasting positive impact?
In the high school setting I know that teachers use a green card system to notify the counseing department of a student who is acting unusual. With the collection of specific information the student is contacted by counseling and offered assistance. Now that's a simplied explaination but you get the idea. With several hundred students in a class this isn't possible. These students have a better idea if a friend or dorm mate is acting out. It is their community.Let the students have access to a green card system and then allow the system to work. Often a network of teachers, counselors, and police staff are notified of an emotionally or mentally ill student and can work with family. These students on campus are without family and often turn to other students who cannot deal with these situations. Give these students a contact point in the college to address their concerns about fellow students.
I do not claim to be an authority on the subject, but I believe that I have a theory that fits. The NIU shooter's profile does not fit that of a true gun enthusiast. Anyone, who has spent as much time on university campus as he has spent is thourghly indoctrinated to 1960's radical left wing ideas, by the the ex-radicals who now teach at these institutions. One of the leading ideas espoused by these professors is that guns in themselves cause people to behave in a violent manner.
Machiavillian theory states that it is acceptable to use any means possible to obtain a desired goal. We see evidence of this daily from our sports figures and politicians.
I believe that the reason, that the shooter went through such extreme measures to hide his motives, is that he thought that this act would go far to promote the anti-gun agenda in which he firmly believed.
posted by eddie chips on Fri Feb 22, 2008 12:32 PMReport Abuse
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