Parental nightmares
(cross posted at Midcentury Modern Moms)
When you send a child off to college, to live in a dorm away from home, you expect that there will be issues. Your child has to learn to take care of him or herself without your supervision, maybe do chores that you would have done at home, organize his/her time, learn to live with roommates, deal with homesickness, loneliness and all the stuff that just goes along with being 18. the usual ups and downs, the stuff you've seen me blog about as my girls explore college life.
You expect that your child will be safe at his/her school, that school security makes the campus a safe haven for students. You expect that difficulties with roommates can be resovled, that the residential life staff can come to the aid of kids who are having difficulties adjusting to dorm life, that everyone will get along.
I guess that's why recent news stories sent shivers up my spine.
A shooting spree at the University of Texas. Fortunately the gunman didn't shoot anyone except himself.. Reminded me of what happened at Virginia Tech a couple of years ago, but with a better outcome.
A shooting at a Seton Hall frat party left a young woman dead and several other party goers injured. the gunman had been denied entrance to the party and just randomly shot party guests in retaliation.
But the one that scared me the most....what happened at Rutgers. It was national news. A young man committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge. Seems the young man's roommate and another student thought it would be "fun" to secretly videotape the young man's sexual encounters and broadcast the video on the Internet. I suppose they thought it would be "amusing" because the victim happened to be gay. the result -- one student dead, two others facing up to five years in jail for their "prank".
such a horrible invasion of privacy by the stranger you happen to be living with.
I cannot imagine being the parent of one of the victims.
And I cannot imagine being the parent of one of the perpetrators.
As much as you hope you your children remain safe and happy outside of your presence, you also have to be concerned that your children absorbed the morals you tried to teach them, that they are caring and compassionate and that they exercise good judgment.
It's a scary world out there.
When you send a child off to college, to live in a dorm away from home, you expect that there will be issues. Your child has to learn to take care of him or herself without your supervision, maybe do chores that you would have done at home, organize his/her time, learn to live with roommates, deal with homesickness, loneliness and all the stuff that just goes along with being 18. the usual ups and downs, the stuff you've seen me blog about as my girls explore college life.
You expect that your child will be safe at his/her school, that school security makes the campus a safe haven for students. You expect that difficulties with roommates can be resovled, that the residential life staff can come to the aid of kids who are having difficulties adjusting to dorm life, that everyone will get along.
I guess that's why recent news stories sent shivers up my spine.
A shooting spree at the University of Texas. Fortunately the gunman didn't shoot anyone except himself.. Reminded me of what happened at Virginia Tech a couple of years ago, but with a better outcome.
A shooting at a Seton Hall frat party left a young woman dead and several other party goers injured. the gunman had been denied entrance to the party and just randomly shot party guests in retaliation.
But the one that scared me the most....what happened at Rutgers. It was national news. A young man committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge. Seems the young man's roommate and another student thought it would be "fun" to secretly videotape the young man's sexual encounters and broadcast the video on the Internet. I suppose they thought it would be "amusing" because the victim happened to be gay. the result -- one student dead, two others facing up to five years in jail for their "prank".
such a horrible invasion of privacy by the stranger you happen to be living with.
I cannot imagine being the parent of one of the victims.
And I cannot imagine being the parent of one of the perpetrators.
As much as you hope you your children remain safe and happy outside of your presence, you also have to be concerned that your children absorbed the morals you tried to teach them, that they are caring and compassionate and that they exercise good judgment.
It's a scary world out there.
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