A moment of sadness

I've pulled myself away from my thesis for a moment today to talk about a sad and shocking turn of events. Someone went on a shooting rampage today at Dawson College in downtown Montreal, (map)killing one woman before being killed by police (about 20 others were wounded). I am a college professor at a different institution (although I have taught at Dawson in the past), so this tragedy hits close to home. As a parent, I am also saddened because of the trauma that all of those students must be suffering and that tonight, two families are missing members. Gun violence is a growing problem in Canada, but I think that other problems are at the root of events like this. Young people have so many issues of great complexity to deal with, and many of them have less and less time to spend with their parents in order to talk about these issues and, more importantly, learn how to deal with the strong feelings that arise from them.

My thoughts and prayers are with all of the suffering families in Montreal tonight.

Not surprisingly, CNN.com has a plethora of videos and photos from the shooting. Most moving (to me at least) is this image of the campus daycare being evacuated.