Blakley: The Positive Things About Christopher “Cooley” Starks

This past Thursday evening, a tragic shooting occurred on Savannah State University where Christopher “Cooley” Starks was shot and eventually passed at the hospital hours later. Tiger’s Roar, the student newspaper was on top of this breaking news immediately, and when something new appeared about the incident the student’s working for the newspaper were first to let everyone know the 411. During this incident, I thought it was quite odd how no one knew who the suspect was, for example, what color shirt he had on, what his face looked like, no clues of who killed this 22-year-old man who only lived to be 22 for 10 days. What I want to discuss is how the media is portraying Cooley just an aspiring rapper, however, he was much more than that.

Starks was a transfer from Appalachian State University who was currently a junior majoring in Mass Communications. My fellow classmates in class that knew him described him as a person who lived life with no regrets, he was always smiling and was in school to better himself and build a great future for himself. The media seemed to portray him as the typical stereotype by showing pictures of him others will probably label him as a “thug” when in my opinion if a young man is in college to get a degree, he is not a thug. Some media sites are just claiming him as just an “aspiring rapper” which is true, but that really has nothing to do with him and the situation that happened.

Mass Communications Chairman Wanda Lloyd created a blog about Cooley by collecting  quotes and information from students that knew him to acknowledge all the positive and great things about him while he was alive. I felt that the national news websites such as: CNN, New York Times, ABC News and more should have contacted Tiger’s Roar to collect information that his family and friends would love to remember him by, not just as an “aspiring rapper”.

Picture of Starks at Appalachian State University (Newsmax.com)

“The safety of those who live, study, work and visit Savannah State University remains a top priority – no exceptions. Savannah State University has zero tolerance for violence of any kind. If students are aware of the presence of weapons, please think and act responsibly to disclose such information to a member of the faculty, staff or administration, or other figure of authority. While it may be natural to want to protect an associate, the lack of disclosure may do more harm than good in the long run. Therefore, anyone with information about the incident should contact the SSU Police Department.” http://www.inquisitr.com/2373425/savannah-state-university-shooting-christopher-starks-killed-gunman-still-at-large/

This is a quote from Savannah State saying that they try to keep all their students safe, however, so far  tI have not seen a change in security too much, hopefully our police and security are trying to find better ways of keeping us students safe while classes are in session. Hopefully as a current Savannah State student this will be the last tragedy my school as a whole will have to deal with.