August 29, 2023
Erica Payton Foh, PhD, MPH
Statement on Recent Violent Events from the Department of Public Health Education
In the midst of the back-to-school season with the ringing of wake-up alarms and school bells, we are left to contemplate and reconcile our nation’s three most recent violent events. Friday’s August 25th shooting on North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University’s (NCA&T) campus, where one individual was injured; Saturday’s racially motivated killings on August 26th resulting in the deaths of three Black people in Jacksonville, FL; and now yesterday’s campus shooting and death of a faculty member at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). Gun injuries and gun deaths are violent and devasting events that undermine safety in our communities. It is time, yet again, to grieve and lament over what has been lost: lives, our sense of security in the places we inhabit, and our connection to understanding and healing.
As Public Health professionals, we also strongly feel it continues to be a time for collective thought and action towards peaceable solutions. It is well within our responsibilities as Public Health and Health Education professionals to “agitate”, stir up, and initiate vital public discussions with community members, leaders, and decision-makers on comprehensive, socially just, and health equity-informed approaches to ending gun violence.
If at this moment you feel counseling would benefit you, please reach out to UNCG’s Counseling and Psychological Services.
For issues specifically related to violence, contact UNCG’s Campus Violence and Response Center.
Visit Spartan Safe to learn about UNCG’s safety initiatives, including information on the Run, Hide, Fight protocol, and the mobile safety app.
To learn more about ways to get involved in gun violence awareness and advocacy efforts visit these websites:
Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence
North Carolinians Against Gun Violence
North Carolinians Against Gun Violence Action Fund
If you are interested in organizing a collaborative effort on campus with our Public Health Education’s honorary society, Eta Sigma Gamma, please email [email protected].
In the spirit of American abolitionist and activist, Frederick Douglass, together let us “agitate” for change.
Respectfully,
Dr. EP. Foh