SOMEONE needs to tell me what in the world is happening to students at our university. In 2003, the University has witnessed too many malicious acts involving students. The incident last spring involving Student Council President Daisy Lundy was a horrific tale -- a student running for office allegedly being called a "nigger" and having her head bashed into her car steering wheel. Last weekend, after an altercation in front of Sigma Chi fraternity house, two students were charged with class three felonies after landing a fellow Wahoo in the hospital in critical condition. These were outlandish, uncharacteristic displays of unnecessary violence, but this past weekend has surpassed both of these incidents. On Saturday morning, a University student was charged with second degree murder for allegedly stabbing a volunteer firefighter multiple times in the torso, killing him. Somehow, hatred, pride, anger and malice have penetrated our community and in stressful situations, our university needs to make it known that violence of any kind is not acceptable to this community.
How devastating it is that the first homicide in Charlottesville this year was committed by a University student. This has nothing to do with reputation or pride in our namesake. Rather, the problem is that this student was not able to control himself in the midst of a heated argument, that none of his peers were able to detect a problem with anger management or violence and that the University did not have its resources utilized to offer help to this student if this incident was at all foreseen. People do not usually end up murdering others without any sign or clue from their normal lives that something of this magnitude could happen. The saying goes that "hindsight is 20/20," but this does not matter for the young man that died last weekend. Rather, it is important that our community understand that friendship means getting people help when they need it and speaking up if something seems out of place.
Do not get me wrong, in no way does this article mean to implicate acquaintances of people who act violently in the crime itself. No one literally expects their next door neighbor at the University to end up in such a horrible situation. Rather, our entire community needs to be made aware of any sort of signs that there may be a problem and be more vocal and instrumental in addressing such issues. Even now, the alleged perpetrator in the Daisy Lundy case has neither been identified nor duly penalized. That person is still walking around University reprimand or reason to regret his actions -- seeing as no one has turned himself in or offered useful information to the identity of the suspect. This is critically important because, when analyzing who would be so concerned for a Student Council election, the man is likely himself still a University student. Today, a black woman is attempting to run for president of the United States. If this same person tried to attack her, there would be fault in anyone who did not speak up with information last March.
The frustrating part of these incidents is that, even if only a small majority, there are students walking across our Grounds who believe that violence is an acceptable way to handle their anger or to settle a disagreement. However, we at the University are supposed to be mature adults, and thus, there are no excuses and no apologies. It would seem safe to assume that people know and understand this as they enter a collegiate atmosphere, but this is clearly not the case.
From now on, our University needs to take some extra measures to discuss violence and stress/anger management with students entering our community. We cover things like sexual assault, diversity and transition, but it is clear that we need to discuss situations when violence may be present. People need to know how to handle themselves when things get out of control, as well as what to do when there is a possibility of someone doing harm to them.
The two incidents over the past weekends occurred in front of large groups of people who were able to witness the events leading up to the violence. In both of these recent cases, witnesses claim that they saw heated arguments taking place for up to a half an hour before anything actually happened. This is clear evidence that people are concerned with their primary well-being and that they do not know how to best respond in situations of violence. It is critical to begin addressing violence to everyone here and how to react appropriately. Even if people had wanted to act, it appears adequate attention has not been placed on programs that are available to students when it comes to violence like Help Line at Madison House -- if it had, these types of incidents would not have occurred. Even more fundamentally logical, in witnessing a situation that might lead to violence, students should not be hesitant to call the police when things seemed to be getting legitimately out of control.
I do not claim to be an expert in anger management or violence on campuses. However, the University has numerous opportunities and resources to shape the foundations of our community and maintain an informed student body. Sympathy and promises of cooperation are not a sufficient response. Rather, administrators need to rededicate our community as one that is as wise and safe as possible, with comparable penalty for those who choose to break our community of trust by acting maliciously. Our community is too valuable to have these sorts of incidents going on. They may seem isolated, but educating all about the reality of violence is worth it if one life will be saved.
(Amey Adkins' column appears Tuesdays in The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at aadkins@cavalierdaily.com.)
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