Devastating, horrific, excrutiating, gut-wrenching. These descriptors have been heard repeatedly in response to the tragic loss of life in Newtown, Connecticut. All too often, these adjectives are also used by my students at Baltimore City Community College (BCCC), who all too often experience the pain and devastation of random killings and shootings. Unlike Newtown, these deaths have not prompted a national dialogue on gun control, nor have they led to a national public outcry for action. Rather, these killings tend to be buried in the news, and added to the death count of murders for the City of Baltimore.
In years past, I have gotten messages such as, “Professor Bucher. This is _____, your student in SOC 101. I wasn’t in class today, because I had a family emergency. My brother was shot and we stayed in hospital all night. I was calling to see if we’re having a test on Friday.”
In another one of my classes, I ask my students, “If someone was to write your life history, what would we learn about barriers to success and your ability to overcome those barriers.” In the course of answering this question, one student wrote, “To me, I have already accomplished one of my goals; that is, living to see 25.” As a white, middle class male who has lived a privileged existence, I never, not once, even thought about not being able to celebrate my twenty-fifth birthday.
For too many of my students, funeral services for young victims of senseless killings is not the new norm; it is the old norm. And unlike many of us, these students can relate all too well to the physical, emotional, psychological, and social impact of what took place in Newtown.