On Friday night, a doctoral student in the engineering program at Duke University was shot to death in his off-campus apartment (thanks, Zuni123). The parallels of this tragic crime to the LSU murders cannot be ignored; like then, our tip line is the conduit for confusion and frustration over another senseless murder. Via The Raleigh Chronicle:
The victim has been identified as Abhijit Mahato, age 29, a Ph.D. engineering candidate who was from India and was studying in the United States, Duke University officials said on Saturday afternoon.
“He was found by friends who came by the apartment to check on him Friday night,” said Kammie Michaels of the Durham Police Department. Mahato was pronounced dead on the scene when police arrived, say police.
Durham Police said they do not yet have a motive for the shooting. Their investigation is continuing…
Mahato, originally from Tatangar, India, was studying for an engineering doctorate degree focused on computational mechanics at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering. He was in his second year in the program, says the school.
Larry Moneta, Duke’s vice president for student affairs, said the university has begun “reaching out” to Mahato’s friends and to his family in India, as well as to Indian and other international students on campus. It is offering counseling services and has begun considering appropriate ways of commemorating Mahato’s life.
One way they didn’t commemorate it was by finding it a happy opportunity to test a school safety feature.
Here’s how the victim’s adviser, Tod Laursen described him:
“He made friends very easily and always had a smile on his face,” Laursen said through Duke University. “Our research team was particularly close to Abhijit. He was very well read in both poetry and literature, and enjoyed conversation with others about what they were reading.”
More about a stolen life:
On his website at Duke, Mahato said his hobbies included reading books, playing chess, and photography.
Before coming to Duke, Mahato worked for two years for the GE Global Research Center in Bangalore, India where he focused on finite element analysis, a computer-simulation technique used in engineering.
Mahato earned his mechanical engineering degree from Jadavpur University in India in 2001 and a master of technology degree from the Indian Institute for Technology in Kanpur in 2004.
Mahato was very proud of his Indian heritage and seemed to enjoy talking about his hometown.
“My upbringing was in Kolkata; the City of Joy, the city of intellectuals, and much much more,” said Mahato on his website at Duke. “My native language is bengali. We, Bengalis, have a very distinct and rich culture.”
Mahato’s website is here. May his memory be eternal.
Amitabh,
Believe it or not, I actually agree with you. I shoulder of the blame for my contributions to the veering off, I later clarified that I didn’t intend to draw the hate crime conclusion a priori.
I wonder what steps Duke has taken to salvage their tarnished reputation, from what I understand there have been many incidents recently of this nature.
UT is a huge no-no, thanks for bringing it to my attention.
Back on topic, please– a life has been lost. Save the never-ending debating shenanigans for another thread, please.
I have to agree. If he was the unfortunate victim of some kind of black/Latino turf war, well, that’s even more unfortunate.
Basically what you said about L.A. and the Bay Area not being satellite cities like NYC or Chicago, but moreso a network of cities. Especially since you need a car to get around. I love the Bay, though, and love visiting my relatives there.
HMF, if I was promoting a certain cause, I wouldn’t want you repping it. So please, just stop.
I agree with Amitabh, Abhijit was not killed because he was Indian, or looked Mexican or whatever. He was killed senselessly, and it is such a horrible waste of talent and potential, and a great kid. Someone mentioned earlier about how SM wouldn’t care as much if it was a gas station owner. You are right…we woudn’t…that sort of thing happens ‘regularly’. It doesn’t make it less of a tragedy, but it does make it less of a ‘story.’ By saying that, however, you are demeaning what people like Abhijit have done. You are saying that ‘who cares,’ people from gas stations die all the time and no one ‘gives a ****.’ Leaving the only country you have known…coming here to study an esoteric subject like computational mechanics, in which there is No guarantee of future industry employment, takes an intrepid soul. It is that same intrepid soul that many of our parents had, those who came here as students many years ago. It is uniquely different than coming here with your family, with a job in place, or some on a ‘family’ visa with a motel in place for employment. The kid put his future on the line, so confident in his own abilities and so interested not only in his own future, but in Contributing to science and through that the world. My friend, who had a class with Abhijit, just called and told me her professor was so upset that he cancelled the class, and had a discussion with the students for 3 hours.
I know there is a larger number of SM posters who have ‘anti-elitist,’ anti-academic sentiments. However it is people like Abhijit who are going to improve your world. It is exactly this loss of potential that makes this a bigger story than if he was a gas-station owner.
HMF, if I was promoting a certain cause, I wouldn’t want you repping it. So please, just stop.
Glad you took the advice to not use the thread pertaining to someone’s death to grind your own ax.
Here is a letter from Duke’s President Brodhead to all the students.
” Dear Member of the Duke University Community,
I write to share my great sadness over the sudden and senseless death of Abhijit Mahato, a graduate student in the Pratt School of Engineering, who was murdered in his off-campus apartment this weekend. Having spoken with Professor Tod Laursen, in whose lab Abhijit was making important contributions, I have a sense of his great promise and endearing character. I extend my sympathy to Abhijit’s friends and colleagues and to all members of the Indian and Hindu community for this appalling loss. A celebration of his life will be held in Duke Chapel later this week.
Since news of Abhijit’s death was first reported by the Durham Police, many people at Duke have been working to provide support. I am grateful to Professor Laursen and his Pratt colleagues and to our International House for reaching out to students, especially our many international students, at this painful time. The professional staff of CAPS is providing counselling to those who need assistance. I met today with representatives of the Indian Ambassador from Washington to express our grief and concern for Abhijit’s friends and family in India.
We have also learned from Durham Police that there has been a spike in armed robberies throughout Durham in recent weeks. This means that recent assaults on Duke graduate students are part of a larger issue. We have received assurances from city authorities that they will make every effort to investigate and resolve these issues. Meanwhile, under the direction of Associate Vice President for Campus Safety and Security Aaron Graves, Duke is increasing off-campus patrols by Duke Police in selected areas near the campus, consistent with our agreement with the city. Since this will divert some police personnel from their usual campus responsibilities, the university is increasing its use of hired security forces to maintain a strong security presence on campus. A meeting is also being scheduled with off-campus landlords to discuss improving security in facilities that have experienced recent crimes.
On Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., an open forum for the Duke Community will be held in the Schiciano Auditorium of the CIEMAS Building. Aaron Graves, Larry Moneta and other university officials as well as representatives of the Durham Police will answer questions and review the things each of us can do to help ensure our own safety.
Finally, anyone with possible information about Abhijit Mahato’s death or any of the recent robberies is encouraged to contact the Duke Police at 919-684-2444 or Crimestoppers at 919- 683-1200.
Richard H. Brodhead”
154 脗路 Roger said
Wrong. We have covered such cases or “stories”. We don’t have some bizarre scale with which to decide whose death merits a post. I don’t think anyone here expects gas station or convenience store owners to die and is thus, blase when such a senseless murder does occur.
Wrong again, and thankfully so, though this idea bubbles up from time to time. The majority of our commenters aren’t idiots or hypocrites. Relative to the rest of the country, I’d say most of us have “elite” and “academic” backgrounds.
Anna…sorry my comments came out wrong, just a little upset at some of the comments that seemed to imply that this was not a ‘huge deal’. I have only been reading/commenting here for a little while, and that was the impression I got. And by SM I meant commenting community, not the blog postings. I also really believe there is less of a distinction between the ‘gas-station’ owner kids and the kids of professionals than many here make out. I don’t believe there is really a class distinction here. After all those kids of gas station owners usually end up going ot the same colleges as the supposedly ‘higher class’ desis.
Having a ‘elite’ or ‘academic’ background doesn’t necessarily mean that one does not harbour anti=elitist sentiments….after all many socialists are very well educated.
I didn’t see that before I commented… apologies to ANNA.
Have you been to Queens, NY? The desi kids there (many of them) are not heading to college. Rather, after barely graduating from bad high schools, they go straight into construction, transport, small business (which sounds more glamorous than it really is), etc.
159 脗路 Roger said
Very true and thanks for the clarification. 馃檪 Again, I’m really glad that someone from Duke is here, giving us such a valuable perspective and I’m glad you’re here, period. We love our new mutineers.
Nala, don’t apologize to me, lion cub. As has been noted in the past, often friends and family of the deceased google a name and end up right here…in this case, they might be perplexed at what has transpired on this thread, since, like our new friend Roger, they are probably unaware of the complex, continuous HMF v. Manju debate re: I-banking and Malcolm X which has spanned oh-so-many threads…
I don’t want veer completely off-topic but I kind of have to disagree. Just based on my personal experience this isn’t true, and I think coming from different class backgrounds is one of the (if not the) biggest ‘barriers’ when it comes to forming friendships and relationships, though I guess a few well-off 1st gen desi parents still maintain a more scrimp-and-save, more strict outlook that may make their children more understanding.
162 脗路 A N N A said
Heh. i was just thinking of that. what a freak i must seem like to outsiders looking in. especially the “lesbian paradise state” comment. people must be like “wtf?”
I agree whole heartedly. This wasn’t the place for it.
Roger @158, I completely agree with you about some people seem to slighting this tragic event, and thanks for a eulogy of sorts in @154. I really feel for his family back in India. What must they be going through, so far away…, so senseless is this that there can be no closure I think. Bless his soul and hope his family gets the strength to somehow cope with this.
Amitabh at #161- thanks for brining that up.
Roger, I know you’re just trying to show how good your school has been for you, but I have to disagree with your characterization of Duke. I know it has a thriving South Asian community, and that’s definitely something to be proud of. But I know people who went/go there who had really terrible racist and homophobic experiences, and didn’t find much help either from the administration or the college’s (often self-segregating, not the ‘diversity postcard’ you describe) South Asian community. I say this not to pick on Duke but just to point out that all schools have their problems (e.g. Harvard had that incident last year with some students calling the cops on a group of black students playing football on the quad). I’m glad you’re having a great experience, but not everyone does.
While I’m at Duke now, I was raised in California, so I have a different experience maybe than those from NJ/NYC.
However over there it seems like there was little difference between the kids who’s parents owned restaurants, gas stations or motels and those whose parents were doctors. We went to the same schools, maybe those of us which professional parents did slightly better academically since our parents could help us/ new better english/ were more involve in school, etc. However a lot of the time the professional parents took the initiative to help out the kids whose parents were a little less educated, for example my dad used to help me and my friends in math/english, including kids whose parents owned motels and gas stations. To be perfectly honest, many of those kids were as well of or better of in purely financial terms. In fact they were the ones more likely to have the nice car or expensive clothes. When it came down to university admissions…it is true that those kids without prof. parents had a greater chance of going to slightly worse schools, but on average we all went to the same ‘level.’ One big difference is that the kids with pro-parents were more willing to pay for big-ticket private schools.
Look.
Everyone is right and everyone is wrong.
I know cases where Roger is right, and those gas station owners’ kids were my classmates, even though some of their parents didn’t even have a high school education. Don’t underestimate the overwhelming desire to have your children be more successful than you were.
I know cases where Amitabh and Nala are right, where desi kids laugh bitterly at what everyone assumes about their life and future, since it’s nowhere near as shiny as outsiders might think.
I know people at Duke who felt welcomed and at home, I know people at Duke who felt the opposite.
Everyone is right, everyone is wrong.
Back. on. topic. Please.
168 脗路 Roger said
Word. It’s so funny, I was about to preface my last comment with how being a Californian made me see things the way you did, and now I find out why that is. 馃檪 The kids I knew from Fremont who lived in the Mission Hills, whose parents owned half-a-dozen stations, are finishing med school right now. California, no doubt about it. 馃槈
p.s. Sorry for having the last word while threadjacking! Eeek. If thought it was a significant point of clarification, I promise.
Nala..
I have been here only for a few months, so I don’t begin to say that I am completely aware of everything that goes on here. I am only comparing it to the west-coast schools I have experience with. Everything is not perfect. However the south asian community is certainly better integrated than most places. One of the interesting things is that in almost every student newspaper there is an article about how there is not enough integration, between black-white, asian-white, athlete-other student integration. However this often seems like hyper-criticism, and in a sense it is good that people are aware of such issues and activly trying to resolve them. I don’t know much about the situation with homosexuals, and I would tend to agree you may be right about that, unfortunately. The kids at Duke, while nice, all seem to come with a very ‘normal’ traditional upper middle class background and I could see that ‘strangeness’ may not be as well tolerated as maybe at Berkeley where there are probably larger communities of unique people.
However if you look at the demographics, you will find that the African american population here is nearly equivalent to the nationwide average( at 11-12%)…you won’t find that at many schools. Asians/Indians are overrepresented as usual. There is really a good mix of students.(I am not making some sort of backdoor claim of AA here). If you really look around here, I think you would be impressed. On a side note the administration does have a sense of incompetence, which is often maligned.
Interesting, Roger, ANNA – I think we can agree that we’re either all right, or all wrong. 馃檪
53 脗路 nala said
Nala, you asked sometime back how the Indian govt might help. The only thing that comes to mind is that they can push for a fair and speedy trial to bring some kind of closure. The Indian embassy was also involved in pushing for investigation in case of LSU tragedies.
Back on topic..right.
I think that one of the unfortunate effects of this tragedy is that the graduate Indian community may tend to turn more ‘inward,’ and people in India will be less willing to send their kids here. The point I was trying to make earlier is that I think there is a pretty good thing going here for the Indian grad kids, and I would hate to see that messed up. It is up to the administration, which has performed below par in the past, to really step up here and reassure the students 1.) that they are really equal members of the Duke community and 2.) their safety is considered the highest of priorities. As in an crisis, there is opportunity as well as tragedy, and here there is one to further strengthen the bonds between Duke and its international community.
Well on the most superficial of levels, Duke already seems more caring than LSU did, so yay Duke.
I hardly believe the Indian government can do much here. If the Duke administration needs to be ‘pressured’ to handle this right, that would be very very unfortunate. The Indian government CAN help ease the pain of Abhijit’s family by helping to ease the transport of the body(assisting with the permits required , etc), helping the family keep in touch with Duke etc.
1.) that they are really equal members of the Duke community and 2.) their safety is considered the highest of priorities.
No offense here man, but you sound a bit like a duke PR official here more than a duke student. I’ve met many indian grad students, and how do I put it, but let’s say if there was a way for students to leave bangalore, mumbai, delhi, wherever, in the morning, and beam over to [insert US school here] then beam right back over to India at the end of the school day, most would do it.
What I’m getting at here is, “integration with the local community” or isn’t really priority #1. Although I think, “not getting dead” will be.
The Indian government CAN help ease the pain of Abhijit’s family by helping to ease the transport of the body(assisting with the permits required , etc)
Thats exactly what they’re doing.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080122/jsp/nation/story_8811098.jsp
Haha..I was afraid I was coming of that way. I didn’t mean to order it that way…I meant that the administration has to perform, and give the impression it is performing to the same level as it would for any student. Certainly priority #1 is to ensure everybody’s safety.
However while Indian grad students certainly feel homesick, there is a great deal that a good educational experience can do to convince them to stay here. Maybe some will hate it…but most do really like the opportunities and style of teaching at american universities, and most Do end up staying here….
LSU set up a “Komma and Allam support fund” to help the respective families. Is there anything being set up at Duke ?
First, my condolences to his family and friends.
Second, there’s a bit more the Indian Government could choose to do than merely act as a conduit to handle Mr. Mahato’s remains and assist his family members. While both of these things are important and must be handled efficiently and with compassion, other embassies when faced with similar acts have done different things. I remember the Japanese embassy issuing a travel warning to its citizens about the United States (specifically L.A.) after the robbery and death of its citizens. This was sometime in the 80’s. I haven’t found the article. I’m not suggesting that be done here. It’s just something that could so embarrass a city/university that might spur it to further action due to the negative publicity.
The Indian government could also decide to send an advisory or report to its universities about which schools have a higher incidence of crime or where there have been reported robberies of its citizens. It would seem to have the effect of educating its citizens as to which schools have an issue with school safety and it would have the effect of encouraging universities to take a greater role in protecting foreign nationals/ increasing security in graduate housing. The universities often rely on graduate students for not only tuition but as a talent pool that replenishes their research programs. Therefore, it would be in their best interest to continue attracting this talent. (It would also be in the Indian Gov’t interest as this talent would hopefully come back to India with knowledge and research obtained while working at U.S. institutions.)
I’m also aware of situations where an Embassy has assisted in hiring local legal talent to bring suits on behalf of their citizens where there has been some suspected malfeasance or negligence that has resulted in the deaths of their people. BTW, the LSU situation seems to cry out for litigation (i.e. inadequate security measures to LSU owned housing despite knowledge of prior violence and crime) while it doesn’t appear there was anything specific with the Duke situation that would lead to the same conclusion. (that I’m aware of).
Just some ideas.
I do not want to extrapolate a trend from two stories (LSU and Duke), but I think the real story here is the pitiful stipends that are the norm for graduate students in most schools, and which, while technically enough to live on, force students to make risky decisions about where they live in order to save a few greenbacks.
A very wealthy school in the city I live in went on a grad housing construction binge a few years ago, and chose a part of town near campus which was basically full of abandoned warehouses, and is still next to a meth clinic. You can often see a few people in a drunken stupor sprawled on the sidewalks etc., and while the neighborhood is showing signs of being cleaned up, it is still not exactly safe, especially for grad students who go to and leave work at all hours of the night. All this while reclaiming existing grad housing that was in the heart of campus and using it to house undergrads (because they probably pay the big tuition dollars and demonstrate more alum loyalty too). The grad housing that they have built, while certainly nice, is also 1.5-1.6x more expensive than what you can find if you go off-campus, as a result of which many people I know don’t choose this option, allowing the university to claim that they don’t need more grad housing because the current setup is under subscribed.
It is an awful cycle which can probably best be redeemed by cheaper and more plentiful on-campus housing or higher stipends, but I guess it is hard to make long-term change happen given the temporary nature of the grad student population, and the fact that the majority of them focus more on their labs and their research rather than “leadership” or “community issues”.
(The town is big enough that poor university investment in the town, like in Yale, Duke etc., is not a reason for the impoverished neighborhoods. Those schools bear an additional responsibility, over and above what I describe above).
In response to the last poster I repeat that it would be very unfortunate if the Indian government did any such thing. The fact is that some places have worse crime rates than others. Duke, like many others, is a great academic institution where great things happen daily, which happens to be in a high-crime locality. It would be sad if Indian students were turned away to attend lesser institutions, due to things beyond the Universities control. Johns Hopkins and UPenn have high rates of crime as well, they are also great universities. Thousands of American students choose these universities in spite of the risks associated. For the Indian government to issue a ‘warning’ is ridiculous, and is what should be done, for example, for people traveling to the border regions of Pakistan, not small town Durham. For the vast majority of students, life is unaffected by crime.
The Indian government can make a pamphlet advising students on the dangers inherent of living in high-crime cities.
I do not know of any fund as of yet, I will try and find out.
183 脗路 Roger said
Why is that ridiculous? If a warning merely educates the graduate student, it’s his/her decision where he/she decides to go.
It is ridiculous because it would unduly influence the decision of potential students. This was a tragedy for sure. But one casualty out of tens of thousands of students, in a non-hate crime situation, hardly seems like a case for a travel warning. Essentially there is no more likelihood that the next murder of an Indian grad student will happen at Duke than at USC. It would be like the UK issuing a travel warning to NYC due to the potential of a terror attack.
Have you been to Queens, NY? The desi kids there (many of them) are not heading to college. Rather, after barely graduating from bad high schools, they go straight into construction, transport, small business (which sounds more glamorous than it really is), etc.
That sounds alot like the desi youth in Vancouver. I wonder if they come from the same part of India.
But one casualty out of tens of thousands of students, in a non-hate crime situation, hardly seems like a case for a travel warning
No, how about 3 cases of murdered students from India, in a short time span, and in relatively speaking the same geographical region (southern schools)
It would be like the UK issuing a travel warning to NYC due to the potential of a terror attack.
Funny enough, they’ve done just that. Sadly enough, I wish the Indian people had a more balanced view of what America is like. I’m beginning to think more and more that you’re on the Duke payroll.
shakes head
C’mon Anna, even you have to face facts. Why title this blog post “another DBD PhD student…” I assume you weren’t referring to a 1993 case, and calling this “another” with respect to that.
I don’t want to feed trollish statements. But I just want to emphatically say no, not entirely so. The biggest desi groups in Queens are Bengalis (both west & east), Punjabis, Gujaratis, Indo-Caribbeans, and Malayalees. Recently there’s been an influx of Sri Lankan Tamils as well.
I don’t know what your view of balance is, but grad students coming from India see a fairly rosy America on average, in the long run. And the poor uncultured ignorant Indians are indeed aware of the fact that the Great Land of America has crime. (Even in Abhijit’s case, his mother says that she had not wanted for him to go to the US).
Not to forget that they are both big sports schools. You know, while we are correlating on irrelevant factors, why not add more to the mix?
HMF why the hell do live in country with such high % of the population of the people being white. There are alot of countries in the world where whites make a small % of the population, I think you could be very happy there telling you new friends stories of the white devils of United States.
Heck I will even pay for you one way ticket out of evil whitey land.
189 脗路 HMF said
I don’t have to face anything. You know exactly why I titled it so. Don’t play your Manju/reindeer games with me, partner.
I’m shaking my head because I can see that Roger is taking this a bit personally (something I have tons of experience in) as any Duke student/alum might. I can also see that JJ makes excellent points, because instead of viewing it the way Roger does, as aspersions cast on Duke and unnecessary fear-mongering, I see the possiblity of lighting a fire under university officials so that they do something, so that this case doesn’t stagnate like the LSU murders.
I agree. Indian universities which send a significant number of graduates to US schools need to have this information easily available and may want to advise seniors on this as the students go through the school-selcection process. Clearly, this list will not be the only criterion, but could be a useful data point in deciding between comparable schools with similar stipends. Often students have multiple options. This safety-ranking, if used widely, also creates an additional pressure on university administration to address the housing issue and indirectly on local law enforcement to reduce crime rate.
FBI’s web site has list of offenses known to law enforcement for most cities. [link (excel)]. They break it down by violent crimes and property crimes — murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assaults, burglary, larceny, auto-theft and arson. It’s trivial to map the cities/neighborhood to schools, create a per-capita crime rate and rank the schools. There is a big difference in violent crime rates between Irvine (126/188,535 = 0.07%), Durham (1957/208,932 = 0.94%) and Baton Rouge (2954/210,486 = 1.40%), but how many international students are aware of that while they are applying? Even when the students end up deciding to go to the “riskier” schools, they would at least know that they need to be extra careful.
185 脗路 Roger said
Roger,
I suggested a travel warning as one of many options that the Indian government could consider, I did not endorse a particular one for this situation. However, if a government truly wishes to exert pressure on an institution that seems determined to treat its foreign graduate class as underpaid serfs (which essentially forces them to live in dangerous housing) then that individual graduate student has little control or power to change that situation. However, if a government so chose, it could highlight instances of certain universities (and I would classify LSU as one) that does little to protect its graduate students based on the crime statistics. That act, the warning, a public embarrassment, often times has an effect. I understand your knee-jerk reaction to protect your new alma mater but the fact remains that certain universities (and organizations) (and I’m not suggesting Duke is one) will not change unless forced by some external pressure. (whether that be a warning or suit)
Why would a warning unduly influence an Indian graduate student? I don’t follow this. Is he/she less capable of an American graduate student of weighing the risks and benefits of attending a particular institution when given the same information as an American student? Why should he/she be less educated to the risks when an American student is more aware of his country’s crime statistics and the region around his institution while a foreign born student is unlikely to know these things. A foreign national should have the same amount of information regarding his housing and the attendant crime statistics as an American student to make a similarly informed decision.
The U.S. State Dept. issues travel warnings based on the remote possibility of avian flu, why should the Indian gov’t take less consideration for its citizens.
I am on the Duke payroll…they pay me a graduate stipend, that some of you have much maligned as pitiful. How about 3 students murdered in the South? First of all that represents 2 incidents, with hundreds of thousands of students, this is less than 1/10th of a percent. Are you really saying that it is unsafe for Indian students to go to universities in the South?
Now you are ignoring other incidents. What about the the murder of Karishma Dhanak and family in UC Irvine? Thats the only one on the top of my head, but there are several I am sure. What about the rampage at Virginia Tech? There was at least one Indian kid killed there? What I am saying is these are random incidents, tragedies in their own right, but not evidence of some trend to be confronted.
If that is the case, then what is your problem with JJ’s suggestion of listing schools with a higher incidence of crime? (I honestly don’t know comparative numbers between Duke and USC, so I am not taking issue with that as much as your opposition to the idea).
Murder = sadness = anxiety = not the thread for our normal debates y’all. I’m just saying, view everyone’s reactions a bit differently. Tread gently, like you have been (and keep in mind that I may be referring to comments we’ve nuked before you even saw them).
VT was likely a one-off/random incident given the rate of occurrence of school shootings, but there is no evidence that this isn’t another instance of neighborhood crime/robbery, which can hardly be classified as one-off and not indicative of trends?
I don’t want to change the topic, but since we are talking about death of south asian. I wonder will there be a blog/post about a couple of South Asian murders in Canada in the last month.
A month ago 16 year old pakistani girl named Asqa Perver was killed by her father cause she would not wear a hijab to school. And in the last week here in Vancouver a 18month old punjabi girl was killed by father cause he wanted a son.