By Kara Parker

Staff Writer

    Everyone was talking about the death of a North Forsyth High School student for days after it happened. Most did not talk about it like a tragedy, however. They simply brought it up as if it were an interesting, new, and cool event. That is a horrifying way to talk about a peer dying. Some even said it was a “dumb” way to die, in a fight over a vape pen. Maybe they are right, but does it really matter how someone dies? Does the cause of death determine whether it should be viewed as a tragedy? Any act of school violence is a tragedy and should be treated as such. 

    According to WXII and Fox8 WGHP, 16-year-old Cameron Graham was killed in a school bathroom at North Forsyth High School shortly after the start of the school day on Tuesday, December 9, 2026. A fight between Graham and a friend started over a vape pen. During the fight, Graham pulled out a knife, and his friend made an effort to take the knife from him, resulting in injuries to the friend and a deadly blow to Graham. 

    Over the course of the fight, a crowd of students gathered around the two and watched. Some students filmed the event to post it online. The videos sparked a lot of anger in viewers, many of whom made comments about how these students who stood by were as much to blame for Graham’s passing.

    Additionally, for some, including myself, this devastating event at North stirred up emotions that had been felt the previous December. Graham’s death happened just one day before the one-year anniversary of another horrible act of school violence: the shooting of an R.J. Reynolds High School student on campus. That day, not ten minutes after the final bell dismissed everyone, a gunshot rang out, and a bullet hit a Reynold’s senior in the leg. 

    That next day, the school felt empty, lifeless in a way, as I’m sure North Forsyth would have felt to anyone who may have been on campus the day after Graham’s death. The students of North Forsyth were not on campus following his passing; instead, they were given two days to recover with their families away from campus. While it is nice that the students were given time away from campus, are two days really enough time to process such a traumatic event as the death of a peer?

    Violence in schools, like these two horrible events, seems to have become something people in America simply expect. It’s as if another student dying, another shooting, or any other violence on the campus of a school is nothing new. It is not even seen as newsworthy for anyone outside the general area where the violence occurred. The idea that a child’s death is irrelevant or unworthy of being remembered is appalling to me. 

    With this expectancy, it often feels as if, instead of trying to address the root of the problem and trying to fix it, the people in power choose to step around it. They come up with solutions without fixing the problem itself. They implement metal detectors at events, schools, and government buildings. They have state-mandated lockdown drills. Police officers are posted at schools, and parents buy bulletproof backpacks for their children. Most horribly, some kids learn what to do if a shooter comes to their school before they even learn to read. 

    Why is this the world we live in? 

    Instead of making it the job of the student or the parent, the job of teachers and principals, why can’t our representatives, our leaders, those we trusted with control of our government, address the problem itself? Why do people fight about wanting to own guns when children are dying? When loved ones are dying. It’s time to take action and do our part to address the problem itself in an effort to prevent the next student death from school violence.