One 18-year-old female ISU student is dead. Two males are wounded. Five persons have been arrested for possession of marijuana. Up to 100 attended a party Thursday night and early Friday morning in an apartment, just blocks off-campus. There could not have been much social distancing under confined circumstances. Does anyone suppose the partiers were wearing masks?
TH Police Chief Keen said, “Unfortunately, we have not had a lot of cooperation from a lot of the witnesses who were there. We would appeal to those people that this is a tragedy and we believe she deserves justice in this case, and we would ask people to think about that and hope they would come forward.”
When I read this report, I was reminded of a Saturday night ISU party, which I attended almost 50 years ago in a local motel. The following Monday, I was called to the Dean of Students office and reprimanded for attending the party where alcohol was flowing. The Dean tried to get me to name others who were in attendance. I refused. As a result, I was put on social probation by the Dean and required to do community service at the Boy’s Club.
Of course, the deadly incident the other night is so much more serious. But the rebellious attitudes of those attending the wild party and of my party going during my student years are the same.
I don’t know what the legal penalties are for withholding information from the police but whatever they are they should be prosecuted. Meanwhile, those attending the party should be immediately expelled by the ISU administration, which should have been my penalty, when I partied at a student.
A week before the killing, Bro Jed & Co. was preaching on the ISU campus in Dede Plaza. University employees, including the Dean of Students were zealous in insisting that both the students and preachers wear masks and vainly attempted to enforce social distancing. Perhaps if the administration were as fervent in controlling the moral and social behavior of students, the dead coed would be alive today.
Whether the girl heard our preaching or not, I know not. Very likely she at least heard we were speaking out against the marijuana and the other sins which accompany the party life. Had the deceased student listened she would be alive today with her sins forgiven.
Friday and Saturday nights were considered party nights even when I was an undergrad at ISU in the early 60’s. In the mid-70’s the party nights were expanded to include “Thirsty Thursday.” Alas, party-time has become known as what the universities promote as “the college experience.”
It is time to raise the standards of education. Most ISU students are actually not college material. They often refer to themselves as “party animals.” Professors need to divide the serious students from the partiers by giving assignments, which will result in no time for partying, if one is going to keep their grades up and stay in school. Anyone caught using recreational drugs, including marijuana, anyone intoxicated or fornicating, whether with the opposite sex or same-sex should be immediately expelled and not be allowed to return.
A lot more students are going to die from drug overdoses and alcohol misuse than they are from the Coronavirus. There is an epidemic of STDs among college students which will have more ill effects over the long run than COVID 19. Immorality will have greater mental and spiritual consequences throughout their lives than catching the dreaded virus. Yet, moral relativism has been promoted in classrooms for decades beginning long before college. We are reaping the consequences.
Meanwhile, Bro Jed & Co. will continue our mission to save souls and save lives through preaching against sin and proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. Listen up students and faculty and administrators; we never know what day or night our soul may be required of us and we stand before a Holy God in Judgment.