Students Feel Less Safe on Campus
A recent spate of killings has college students worried about safety.
March 9, 2008— -- Fear has permeated the ivy covered walls of America's seemingly serene campuses, following a recent string of campus shootings and the seemingly random murders of two college students this week.
Reported crime on college campuses has increased in recent years and despite improved security measures since last April's massacre at Virginia Tech, students and experts say the illusion of colleges being safe havens is eroding.
"College campuses are not oases where students are protected from all harm," said Jonathan Kassa, executive director of Security on Campus, a college security watchdog group. "Wonderful as campuses feel, students need to be aware of their surroundings and schools need to implement better procedures."
There were about 42,000 burglaries, 3,700 forcible sex offenses, 7,000 aggravated assaults and 48 murders reported on college campuses in 2003, the most recent year for which data are available, according to U.S. Department of Education statistics. But in the past few weeks there has been a marked increase in fear among students, Kassa said.
"Over the past few months, it has been overwhelming how unsafe students say they feel," he said. "Parents and students feel they don't have much control in keeping themselves safe or protecting themselves from these tragic, senseless crimes."
In the past month, headlines around the country have reported instances of campuses being locked down as a result of real or perceived threats, an indication that school officials may be feeling the same concerns as students.
Kassa said it was too early to tell if there was an increase in crime on campuses, but that there was certainly an increase in crimes being reported.
This week, two young women were killed in seemingly random attacks near their universities.
Tuesday, police found Lauren Burk, an 18-year-old freshman at Auburn University in Alabama, alone at 9 p.m. on the side of the highway near campus, with a gunshot wound.
Burk was last seen by friends two hours earlier and died later that night at the hospital. Police found her black Honda Civic engulfed in flames in the parking lot of a school dormitory nearby.
On Friday, police arrested Courtney Lockhart in Phenix City, about 30 miles from the campus, and charged him with three capital counts accusing him of murder along with kidnapping, robbery and attempted rape. Police did not say, however, what led them to charge the 23-year-old in the killings.
At 5 a.m. Wednesday, police in North Carolina found Eve Carson, 22, dead in the street near campus, having been shot several times, including in the head.
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