On Monday, Aug. 28, barely one month ago, students, faculty, and staff at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill locked their doors and sheltered under their desks for three hours. Some jumped from the second-floor windows to escape.
Campus police released a warning of an active gunman at 1 p.m. Chinese immigrant and graduate student, Tailei Qi, shot and killed his professor Zijie Yan. The shots left students in a state of panic all over the school, as he fled the scene.
Many students on campus and across the United States had mixed feelings about the event. “It doesn’t feel like it (a shooting) could happen again today,” one UNC student said. “But it could, and that’s … a scary thing. It seems like everyone’s so desensitized to it.”
“It is tragic, and it’s terrible. And the sad thing really about it is that it just feels like one more drop of tragedy because these things happen so often,” GA Alum and College student Luke Weidemoyer ‘23 said. “One death is a tragedy. 1000 deaths is a statistic. And it’s really started to feel like that at this point.”
These shootings have become so regular for Gen Z, or the “lockdown generation,” that at this point, most are not surprised when these things happen. Just two days before the UNC shooting, another shooting took place at an HBCU in Jacksonville, Florida. Yet, the event made a relatively small shockwave, highlighting how commonplace these events have become.
“It’s really preventative measures that need to be taken,” Weidemoyer said. “Ultimately, there are just so many students on these college campuses that it’s not really feasible to be aware of what’s going on with every single student at all times.”
“Bully in America seems to be a problem. It often comes with people not stopping them at the first time”, wrote Qi in 2022 on social media. What caused Tailei Qi to commit this shooting was this “bullying” and overall annoyance with his environment. These reasons are similar to the causes of many other shootings.
If people had services where they could report people who seemed dangerous, or if they had better advertised mental health facilities on their campuses, perhaps they would be able to prevent these atrocities from happening. Resources like “Safe to Say” are something that Weidemoyer feels is missing on college campuses.
When students come to GA they are placed in an environment with great preventative measures like Safe to Say, the Couceling team, keycard policies, and first-class security. In a conversation with Mr. Steven Moll, Dean of Upper School, Mr. Moll noted how GA has consistently worked to improve the Psychology department by adding two new counselors this year. GA has also invested increasingly in security, instituting new policies and technology.
“We have a lot of trusted adults here. With a lot of hearts,” Dean of Upper School students, Mr. Steven Moll says. “And we’re all in business to help.”
In a conversation with Mr. Greg Keenan, Director of Security, it was found that GA recently revamped its security systems. This revamping includes but is not restricted to adding more cameras, totaling approximately 200, and adding an advanced AI-based weapons detection system called Zero Eyes, which notifies campus security and first responders all under three seconds when a weapon is detected by the cameras. GA also installed a visitor management system called Raptor, which scans visitors’ IDs against the national database to detect potential threats.
School members also have a vital role in ensuring the security of their school. “It is everybody’s responsibility to take some ownership of making GA the safest place that we can so that you can learn the best you possibly can and have the best experience,” said Mr. Keenan. “I may have ten security officers working throughout the day, but if I can get everybody to be a partner in keeping this place safe I now have 1500 sets of eyes on campus, where we can be more alert to things everywhere on campus.”
Sources:
“UNC’s Campus Shooting: What We Know So Far.” UNC’s Campus Shooting: What We Know So Far – The Daily Tar Heel, www.dailytarheel.com/article/2023/08/active-shooter-situation-campus-08282023-recap-what-we-know.
“In aftermath of UNC shooting, a generation confronts a legacy of school lockdowns” MSN, www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/in-aftermath-of-unc-shooting-a-generation-confronts-a-legacy-of-school-lockdowns/ar-AA1g3YV9.
“Can We Make College Campuses Safer? Expert Advice After Recent Shootings.” NPR, 29 Aug. 2023, www.npr.org/2023/08/29/1196521007/unc-chapel-hill-jacksonville-shooting-campus-safety.