It’s got to be rough going to a school associated with a national tragedy. Alumni of schools like Virginia Tech University and Columbine High School have dealt with a barrage of insensitive comments about their schools for years. Jokes about horrible deeds like murder can be cruel at best and triggering at worst. A tragedy that might seem foreign and distant to one might hit far too close to home for others, especially those with known ties to the area where the tragedy occurred.
On November 13, 2022, four college students at the University of Idaho were murdered in their off-campus apartment. This tragic and terrifying story has gripped the nation, which has had some unintended negative consequences for the victim’s families. TikTokers, self-proclaimed psychics, and other true crime fans speculated and spread misinformation about the case online. After several weeks of unclear answers about who killed these women, the FBI and police took Bryan Christopher Kohberger into custody. Kohberger was a Ph.D. student studying Criminal Justice at Washington State University.
One Redditor got his first taste of what it’s like to attend a school widely associated with a murderer. This week, a job recruiter told the WSU alum, “Hey, I hope you aren’t connected with the Idaho murders… but we can figure that out during the background check, haha! Such a sad story.” What can we say but yikes!
