On Monday at 1:02 p.m. EDT, shots were fired at the University of North Carolina campus.
A video of students jumping out of a window to escape the shooter went viral on multiple social media platforms.
Zijie Yan, a UNC physics professor, was shot and killed on Monday. Tailei Qi was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder on Tuesday.
Another shooting. Another death.
Have you ever looked around your classroom and mapped out the best escape route?
Have you looked out a window and wondered if you’d survive the jump?
Have you ever looked down at your phone and wondered what your last words would be to the person you love most?
These are questions that our generation is forced to reflect on.
We’ve been taught how to respond to an active-shooter situation since elementary school. We were just children.
Now we are desensitized to school shootings.
It’s sickening to watch college students like us have to run or jump from windows in fear for their lives while at school.
We are in college to better our future, not have it robbed from us.
It’s horrifying that this is our reality.
We need a new system. Public places are not a shooting range and firearms cannot be irresponsibly regulated.
We’ve had enough of our government refusing to take a stance at the expense of our safety.
Fellow students, please be safe. Talk to your teachers about an escape plan, learn survival tactics to save yourself and hopefully a classmate.
We are tired of hearing stories where teachers are forced to sacrifice their lives for students.
We send our condolences to the students, faculty and staff of UNC.
We see you. We hear you. We sympathize deeply.
