This past Saturday, a gun threat warning was issued for all colleges in the Philadelphia region. According to TIME Magazine, schools such as Temple University, Drexel University and University of Pennsylvania received threats, which were confirmed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. After the recent shooting in Oregon, which took the lives of 10 students and left seven more wounded, another threat could not just have been taken lightly.
Times are changing and students are realizing this. The previous Monday, we walked to class with half sleepy eyes not thinking of anything else besides the fact that we wished that we could sleep in. However, this recent Monday, we walked to class with fear in our eyes as Radnor police officers were on campus, eyeing those walking by with their observant glances.
For our college generation, we have never known a time without school killings. Ever since we were in elementary school, we were taught drills for active shooters. We remember shoving close to our peers in our coat closet trying to hide behind the coats, giggling because we were all so close together. Since we were little, we were taught that we should feel safe in the classroom. Well, we did spend hours upon hours obtaining an education — why shouldn’t we feel safe?
Education is supposed to be a safe haven for students – some to obtain a quality education, some to play sports and some to be the first members of their family to receive a college diploma. An educational institution should be safe for students. The reality is, unfortunately, that we live in a world where we are nervous on our walk to class, when we should be excited about the content that we will be learning in a lecture or for the Chicken Nugget Tuesday wraps in the cafeteria.
The classroom is where our thoughts, hopes and dreams are put down on paper and grow throughout our education. Among the things we learn in the classroom, how to be safe should be one of them. The creators of the threats got what they wanted. They stripped students of their courage and helped to alter their daily lives in the classroom.
We should not let them win. We should not be scared of our education.
