(Photo Credit: Google Images)
Yesterday, NC A&T, an HBCU in Greensboro, NC was locked down after reports of a gunman carrying a rifle was reported. Tom Foreman, Jr. of the Associated Press writes:
“Police had received a report of a man with a rifle at 9:57 a.m. in the General Classroom Building, resulting in a security alert to students to ‘shelter in place.’ Two public high schools on the campus were also locked down.
Campus police and officers from the Greensboro Police Department responded, locking down a portion of the campus while teams swept and evacuated four buildings.”
The lockdown was lifted at 1 p.m. and classes resumed at 2 p.m.
The Burton Wire is perplexed as to why there was scant media coverage of this major event. Typically when a college or university or high school for that matter is under lockdown, there is ongoing coverage of the incident. Clearly folks are obsessed with the Don Sterling saga, but does that mean that major news stories go underreported in the process? Is the fact that NC A&T is an HBCU, mean that is means less to American society if students are facing the threat of an alleged gunman? With the coverage that campus shootings and reports of gunmen receive on the news, it is curious that this incident received little to no coverage.
Is this yet another example of the lower value we place on the lives of young black and brown people as it relates to media coverage? Surely, had this been UNC Greensboro or UNC Chapel Hill, NC State or another PWI, then there would have been ongoing media coverage until the alleged incident was resolved?
Read more about the incident at ABC News.
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