Last week, Sidney Lowe Jr. a North Carolina A&T State University student and son of current N.C. State Men’s Basketball coach Sidney Lowe ran into trouble with the law.

Lowe Jr. and an accomplice were said to have robbed and shot a UNC-Greensboro student and that the incident was apparently drug related.

According to WFMY Channel 2 News, the younger Lowe faces several charges, including a felony of aiding and abetting attempted armed robbery.

I was upset that a fellow Aggie had done something that gained the negative attention of our local press.

What is more upsetting, is that a man who had been celebrated in the past few weeks for his accomplishments in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, as an African-American head coach in Division-1 basketball, would be tainted because of the actions of his son.

The most upsetting thing for me though, was in somebody’s opinion, that this is what A&T was all about.

“It sounds like something that should happen at A&T or somewhere else but not here. I thought coming to UNCG would keep situations like that from happening”, said an unidentified African-American UNCG student.

Here lies the controversy. What in the world made this one particular person think that because they are a UNCG student that they are no longer a part of the world and therefore be immune from violent acts? Furthermore, what made them think that A&T was a place that breeds drug dealers and corrupt people and that UNCG is among the holiest of holies?

In this time period we live in, civil violence is at an all time high. Bad things happen in every walk of life.

Going to a particular university doesn’t change people or create a safer version of a person.

Morals and values are developed at a young age. If a person is crazy enough to rob and shoot you, what school you were at when you got shot is irrelevant.

The quote has drawn the attention of a few A&T students including myself.

I decided to come to A&T for the experience, but more importantly, I chose to further my education here. I came to help better myself, and take a step toward removing myself from social ignorance.

One of the things that I think have plagued the University during my four-year tenure has been the actions of one being generalized as the actions of all.

Maybe this UNCG student didn’t mean to generalize and bad mouth A&T or maybe they did.

Either way, the better statement would have been “upon coming to college to further my education, I believed I stepped into a different environment, and because of that, I wouldn’t have expected to see an act of street violence here.”

Making a negative statement about a university that you don’t attend rubbed me the wrong way.

I will not be a hypocrite and bash UNCG or their African-American population, but I will say that the cardinal rule of thinking before you speak should have been applied.

Steven J.Price can be reached at [email protected]

• Steven J. Price