In the current political climate and with new cellphone bans, schools have tried to push social media and controversial topics to the sidelines, saying classes should focus on basic academics.
Kirk’s shooting upended all that.
Graphic footage of Kirk’s shooting on the Utah college campus was available almost immediately online, captured by cellphones from several angles.
They couldn’t escape the videos popping up on their social media feeds or being passed to them by friends and classmates.
Some teens posted warnings that urged people not to click on the Kirk videos, saying they wished the visuals had come with trigger warnings.
In the middle of class, a few pupils watched the video. As they left school, others took out their phones and began to watch the videos repeatedly. A few educators paused their classes to talk about the horrifying news.
Charlie Kirk was assassinated on Wednesday at Utah Valley University, and the news, which was caught on camera in graphic detail, shocked classrooms all over the world almost immediately. Every teen knew Kirk, regardless of their political views.
Talk quickly spread in Spanish Fork, Utah, high school classrooms on Wednesday as students became aware of the shooting and started to speculate about Kirk’s fate. Due to a cell phone ban, many students were unaware of Kirk’s fate until the last bell, delaying difficult class discussions until the following day.
“I was exhausted at the end of the day,” English instructor Andrew Apsley remarked. On Thursday, he spoke about the shooting with each of his four classes at Landmark High School, which is located roughly 15 miles south of UVU.
Schools have attempted to push social media and contentious issues to the sidelines in light of the current political climate and new cellphone bans, arguing that lessons should concentrate on fundamental academics. Everything changed when Kirk was shot.
Instantly accessible online was graphic video of Kirk’s shooting on the college campus in Utah, which was recorded by cellphones from multiple perspectives. Kirk is seen being shot in slow motion and in real time, with his body trembling and blood streaming from his neck. Finding the videos on X, TikTok, and Instagram was simple.
Many teenagers claim that what they witnessed has traumatized them. They had no choice but to watch the videos that friends and classmates shared with them or that appeared on their social media feeds. Some teenagers wrote cautions advising others not to click on the Kirk videos, expressing their wish that trigger warnings had been included.
A friend sent a shocking video of Kirk’s death to Apsley’s 19-year-old child. According to Apsley, the video was “pretty traumatic” for his autistic child, who struggles with emotion processing. For Apsley’s students, that incident turned into a lesson.
Our goal is to be the first, I know. “We want to be the ones to share the information that other people rely on,” Apsley recalled saying to his students. However, not everyone is capable of handling something as violent and graphic as that. “”.
Students were watching from all over the world, emphasizing how social media is a global reality.
In a writing class at a Canadian college, Aidan Groves came across a Reddit headline stating that Kirk had been shot. Although Groves, a student at Calgary’s Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, had not agreed with Kirk’s political stance, “my heart sank, and I was immediately on edge,” he said. Fear and horror gripped him as he swiftly skimmed through the comments. He nevertheless went out of his classroom to view the video.
The 19-year-old Groves was captivated by the video’s immediateness and the audience’s panicked response, even though he grew up watching his father play violent video games. “Everyone in this crowd had just witnessed that,” he said, adding, “and I’ve never seen anybody die.”.
The shooting news diverted everyone’s attention when Groves returned to class ten minutes later. Students distributed their phones. A few of his classmates were shocked. Jokes were made by those who didn’t agree with Kirk’s opinions.
Despite everything, the lecturer continued his lesson.
Kirk’s social media presence introduced him to teenagers worldwide, regardless of whether they admired him or not. A close ally of President Donald Trump and a right-wing activist, Kirk gained notoriety online and at speaking engagements on college campuses, particularly among young men, thanks to his astute use of social media to record his witty answers to liberal questions.
While Richie Trovao, a teenager from San Francisco, disagreed with many of Kirk’s viewpoints, he respected the activist’s “really standing on his beliefs.”. Trovao, 17, had considered entering politics himself, but he has since changed his mind after the assassination. He fears that expressing his opinions could endanger him.
Kirk was shot, according to a friend who messaged the senior in high school on Discord. Trovao initially didn’t believe it, so he went to X to make sure. When he did, a video of Kirk’s death started playing automatically. He felt his stomach turn.
Trovao remarked, “I never imagined I would see something like that happen to someone who is basically an influencer.”. Particularly startling were some remarks on social media that appeared to rejoice over Kirk’s passing.
Prakhar Vatsa, a senior at Connecticut High School, said that the video’s reaction has brought attention to the political polarization and divide among American youth. Following Kirk’s passing, that was the primary subject of conversation among his AP Government classmates.
Vatsa, 17, who grew up in a time when violent imagery was readily available, claimed that he wasn’t particularly impacted by the video he saw while browsing social media because he isn’t particularly sensitive to gore.
He remarked, “I’ve seen worse, but it was a little traumatizing.”
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