Today an armed fugitive was on the Athens campus, and my fellow Bobcats are celebrating canceled classes and tweeting hashtags like #fugitivefest and #gundayfunday.
I am absolutely disgusted and embarrassed to be a Bobcat for the first time in my student career. It doesn’t matter if this fugitive was stealing $5 or $100,000 — he was armed and dangerous. He might not have intended to shoot anybody, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t have opened fire.
The fact that bars on Court Street (which I love) opened early to celebrate what was a potentially dangerous situation sickens me. One of my favorite bars in Athens tweeted that “we should come celebrate with bombs for fugitive fest and gun day fun day.”
Needless to say, I am disappointed in both the bars and the students that are currently partaking in this. There is nothing funny about an armed fugitive. Shame on you.
Samantha Szenay is a junior studying sociology-criminology at Ohio University.
