GranolaBox

Between Columbine and Virginia Tech

I don’t know why, but there seems to be a big difference between the senseless killing at Virginia Tech and the shootings at Columbine almost 8 years ago to the day.

As a high school teacher, the killing at Columbine filled me with instant horror. I teach in a suburban high school with just as many disaffected students, including kids with trenchcoats, as there were in Columbine. I had an awful feeling in the pit of my stomach that wouldn’t go away. We knew in an instant that the way we did business in schools had to change from that day forward.

The shooting occurred over our Spring Break, but when the students came back, they were profoundly affected. They wondered how well protected they were. Some stayed home, not wanting to go to school, although many found this as a convenient excuse.

The tragedy at Virginia Tech, far worse in terms of numbers was made all the more terrifying because it wasn’t confined to a single area. Just like in Columbine, there was instantaneous reportage of the chaos that gripped the Virginia Tech campus.

I went to work this morning prepared to discuss the incident with my students, for a full class period if necessary. None of the kids brought it up, and when I did and tried to engage them in some kind of discussion, they couldn’t have seemed less interested. They were far more interested in writing an essay about the impact of the New Deal on American Government.

In discussions over lunch with other members of my department, they said their kids didn’t mention it in class at all. They too had put time aside to talk about it and none of the students seemed interested.

Why was there such a big difference in the responses?

Was it because after Columbine the nation has “been there and done that?” These kids were only 8 at the time of the Columbine killings.

Is it because the victims were college kids and not high school kids - not children any more?

Have we become so jaded by daily casualty reports from Iraq that 31 dead doesn’t seem like a lot any more?

Has the horror of the Virginia Tech shootings yet to sink in?

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