By: Shereena Sakhrani

Violence in the GTA today is being mentioned more and more in the media. With residence being more aware of violence such as sexual assaults and use of guns, people are taking more precautions. Violence has also escaladed to college and universities. With last year’s Virginia Tech shooting and sexual assaults happening at Toronto’s very own York University, should students feel safe walking around in their college or university campuses?

The school shooting at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007 is an example of violence inside college and university campuses. Thirty-two people were killed and many more wounded by Seung-Hui Cho (a Virginia Tech student at the time) before taking his own life. The world was shock by this unfortunate event as the tragedy made headline news. After the shooting, many students around the world questioned how safe they really feel inside the school campus.

Violence on school campus doesn’t just happen in the United States, but also here in the GTA. It may not be as deadly or tragic as what happened at Virginia Tech, but many students deal with similar issues here in Toronto. An example would be sexual assaults happening at York University. Reportedly, a woman was sexually assaulted in January this year at Founders College residence on the Keele campus. This is the third reported sexual assault at York University since September 2007. Police are investigating the situation and students have been informed for their safety.

When asked how she felt about the assaults happening at York University, Thivya Mariampillai (a current student at York University) replied, “ I actually feel quite safe walking around the campus. Sure, there have been incidents but the school has done a good job making us feel safe. We are informed right away, whenever, something does happen and there are securities all over the place. I feel that the school is doing everything they can to improve and I think they are handling the situation really well. Although, there are certain areas at night where I get kind of scared walking around, especially when I’m by myself. There are areas where it’s really dark and not a lot of people walking around. I think the school should add more lights for those dark areas, and maybe have more securities walking around specific places where there aren’t a lot of people around late at night. Other than that, I feel really safe walking around the campus.”  

I asked Caitlyn Quammie (a student at Sheridan College) on what she feels about the safety at York University and she said, “Over the past years, York University had one of the highest safety ranking out of all universities, but now there have been recent incidences that have dropped their rankings. My sister is a student of York University and she finds that there is nothing wrong with the school and feels safe there. Maybe it’s just the media making the situation worse than it really is.”

Meredith White, a professor at Sheridan College when asked about the safety issues happening at York University, answered: “I question York University’s safety procedure. Sometimes these things are unavoidable so I suggest students do not walk alone and provide a buddy system when walking around the campus; women especially.”

There are definitely mixed feelings from people in response to the situation.
  
With so many incidents at college and university campuses making headlines, will future college and university students feel that maybe going to school may just be too dangerous?

Many could argue that security is tighter due to certain incidents going on at other schools. Although many students still feel unsafe walking around their campuses because of violence happening at other colleges and universities, the majority still feels that their school is still a very safe environment.

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The Writer: Shereena Sakhrani is a student of Sheridan College taking up Media Fundamentals.