Another Shooting On Campus ?

On September 21, 2007, just before 1:00 a.m., Delaware State University in Dover, Delaware, was locked down after two students were shot and wounded. Shaltita Middleton, 17, and Nathaniel Pew, also 17, were the two victims shot. Witnesses say that a group of 8 t0 10 students left the cafeteria after an argument. After meeting again on a nearby corner, one student took out a gun and began shooting, Ms. Middleton was shot twice in the torso, and Mr. Pew was shot once in the ankle.

Officials recall that after the Virginia Tech incident, Officials from Virginia Tech were criticized for not alerting students more quickly. They did not want to have a huge crisis on their hands, so within 15 minutes, students were alerted and most buildings were locked down. Within two hours, (which was the same amount of time that 32 people were shot at Virginia Tech) fliers had been posted at dorms, a message had been posted at the school website, and University Officials telephoned campus dorms and told them what was going on and let them know that classes would be canceled that Friday. Unlike Virgina Tech, Delaware State was well prepared if something major was to occur.

Allen L. Sessoms, President of Delaware State, said that the incident was “a case of our own students making really poor choices and acting incredibly badly.” He also went on to say that a lot of the students came from troubled back rounds and resolved most of their problems with violence. Hopefully, in the future, more Universities and Colleges will act as quickly as Delaware State did.

School violence is a very new topic to history. The Little Rock Nine, whose 50th anniversary was September 25, were a group of 9 black students who were escorted by federal soldiers to Central High School in September 1957. President Eisenhower insisted that the 101st Airborne escort the students to classes because when Governor Orval Faubus dismissed the Arkansas National Guard, the "Little Rock Nine" exposed to an angry white mob. They were to first black students to ever go to that school after the Supreme Court's ruling that segregated schools were unconstitutional. School violence, however, has changed for the worse over the years.