Students across the country are anxiously watching the next move on debt relief, but they may need to turn their attention to death relief after reports Sunday of homicides at the University of Virginia and four found dead near the campus of the University of Idaho.
Both universities canceled classes on Monday after three teammates on the University of Virginia football team were shot and killed on a bus as they returned from a game. The four slain in Idaho were allegedly targeted and reportedly killed by a sharp-edged instrument. No one is in custody for that crime; a former player for the Virginia team has been arrested in the shooting incident.
According to the father of the man in custody in Virginia, the motive for his shooting the victims may have been that he was being bullied.
For him to go to that extent if in fact that was the case is obviously excessive, but the incident is still under investigation.
When we hear about such occurrences happening so far apart and unrelated you worry about the copycat syndrome, especially for young people on the verge of mental and physical breakdown.
And then there are the predators who lurk on the campuses and take advantage of young people who are less attentive, and too often leaving themselves open to strangers.
Like the citizens in Virginia and Idaho, we are still processing what circumstances led to these fatalities. There may have been some warnings in one incident and the other more random and harder to anticipate. Whatever the causes, you must talk to your children about bullying and how to move with caution in the early morning hours.