Here's Lori's comment on "Normal Killers"
As a college professor, I have addressed the subject of campus killings with my students a number of times, as it seems to be a common occurrence these days. I address it with my students because I feel it's important for them to have the opportunity to express their feelings about it. And they have a lot of feelings about it! The reason I stress this is because ten years ago I was a returning adult student, attending classes with students that ranged in age from 17 to 60. We had the unfortunate experience on campus one snowy day to witness a student shoot his girlfriend and then run in the snow, to the middle of the campus walkways, and shoot himself in the head, in between class sessions. I was stunned, speechless, and horrified. But almost even more disturbing was the way the college handled it. They acted as though nothing had happened. No mention of it what so ever. We were sitting in a first floor classroom and as the professor continued his lecture, the police were taping the area and carting away the dead bodies, right by our classroom window! Later that night on the news, the college president boasted about how well the college carried on as usual and that the incident hadn't impacted classes at all. I can tell you that, as a teacher myself, there is no way I would continue discussing the delicacy of a cooked egg in Jane Austen's Emma as a dead body was passing by my window! If people can't even discuss an outside event, happening right in front of their faces, how can they possibly have a handle on any of their inner emotions? Have we, as a society, become so repressed that we even deny the bloody body that just fell inches from our feet? Carrying on as usual made it seem as though the shooting was usual. When did murder and suicide become "usual"?
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