Penn State Students Dress As Va. Tech Shooting Victims

Penn State students sunk to a new low this week when they dressed as victims of the Virginia Tech shooting massacre. The photos were first seen on Facebook and outraged Virginia Tech students and people across the nation. In them, 2 Penn State students are seen with make-up that portrays blood and bullet holes in the Virginia Tech t-shirts they are wearing as a Halloween costume.

Penn State officials quickly condemned the actions and rightly so, sighting insensentivity and decency concerns. As one who is all for expression and speech, this is still sick. What should be done in this case?

Another group os students on facebook quickly organized a group called " People Against The Costume," and some even left threatening messages.

"This is a group of college students who now think it's trendy to be upset about their friends being killed," one of the two Penn State students who wore the costume said. "I don't know what they teach people in Virginia Tech, but at Penn State we don't learn to threaten people with murder to teach them that murdering is wrong."

He goes on to defend the pictures.
"
The thing is, everybody's making a big stink about Virginia Tech. Virginia Tech was 32 deaths out of the 26 thousand that happen in America everyday," he said. "That's the problem with college students. They all live in an ivory tower of privilege. They don't understand, when it all boils down to it, it's someone wearing a costume."

Reaction from Tech students and Blacksburg residents was disgust.

"That somebody would have the nerve to mock [the victims]. They were really good people," said local business owner, Carol Gwin.

Gwin knew three of the victims in the shootings and considered them cherished friends.

If the people who did cannot this do not have the ability to comprehend how wrong this is, then should they even be in college in the first place?