On November 4th, Wilcox Class of 2015 graduate Faisal Mohammad was shot after stabbing four people—two students, one construction worker, and one staff member—on the UC Merced campus. When he fled the scene, two shots rang out, one taking Faisal’s life. There were supposedly dozens of witnesses to the stabbing, one of which being Merced sophomore, Meghan Christopherson, who also witnessed Faisal’s death. A manifesto had been recovered from the body, laying out all the alleged plans for the attack, including the use of zip ties as handcuffs and slathering petroleum jelly on the floor as a booby trap. Police said, at the end of it all, that he must have been motivated by his anger towards his peers after being excluded from a study group. However, the FBI has been called to investigate any possible links to terrorist groups.

The way media outlets have approached the stabbing has stirred controversy, as several immediately jumped to the unsubstantiated conclusion that Faisal was a jihadist. This turbulence was amplified when ISIS sent out a tweet after Faisal’s name was released in the press, stating “May Allah accept him.” Beyond direct declarations of terrorist status, multiple articles quoted school officials and police officers who explicitly stated “we have no reason to believe that this was in any way related to terrorism.” While they also commented that “ it would be irresponsible to draw such conclusions based solely on the ethnicity of the suspect,” the media puts emphasis on Faisal’s assumed cultural affiliations, rather than his most probable personal motivations. Former Wilcox student and former Scribe editor Brian Wiegman, who was acquainted with Faisal, summed up the issue in a statement: “In today’s society we fear-monger so much that it actually causes us to associate crime with race. The media depicts people of Middle Eastern descent as terrorists, regardless of it being a murder or shoplifting. We should be focusing on what causes these tragic incidents rather than focus on the ethnicity of the perpetrator.”

Many students and teachers have expressed shock at the event. Tanya Shrivastava, a junior, says she sat next to Faisal in AP Biology for an entire year, “He was in my lab group and I did projects with him. He was normal. It’s very shocking that he did that.” She emphasizes that if he had someone to talk to about what he was going through, Faisal might still be alive. “I don’t understand why he would ever do that. He didn’t seem like a person who would suddenly snap and want to kill people,” Shrivastava continues. “We weren’t close, but I always felt safe around him—I never felt endangered.”

Faisal’s AP Biology teacher, Mrs. Srinivasan, further emphasized the fact that Faisal “seemed like a normal kid.” He sat in the desk right in front of her table, and was always kind to everyone. Mrs. Srinivasan expressed her disappointment in the way Faisal was portrayed in the media—as a jihadist.

When asked how the district was handling the issue, SCUSD Public Relations Officer Jennifer Dericco said that a crisis team of school psychiatrists was sent to Wilcox in the days after the event to provide emotional support and the regular counselors are currently available. The district has also closely monitored the reactions of students and teachers since the incident to decide what additional actions need to be taken. However, Derricco commented that since Faisal is neither a current student at Wilcox High School nor a prominent member in the SCUSD community, their approach was not as extreme had he been a current, involved student. Nevertheless, she emphasized the importance of contacting school counselors for emotional support if needed and discussing feelings with trusted friends and family about the incident.

Faisal’s actions have led to questions about how society handles mental health issues and how Wilcox can build an even more supportive community. Mental illness is a highly stigmatized issue, but it is one that desperately needs to be addressed. “The last thing anyone wants to be called is ‘crazy,’ and I hate that word so much. People shouldn’t be looked down upon for seeking professional help,” Ferheen Abbasi, Wilcox and UC Berkeley alumnus reflected. She also noted that the “fact that he was planning this makes me really think that there were lot of signs that people picked up on, but couldn’t do anything about it and that’s really common. When you see someone struggling [you don’t know what to do] but you get involved because that’s another human being…they deserve as much happiness as you do.” When prompted how Wilcox can help “get involved,” Abbasi stated, “Wilcox should take this event into consideration in the sense that they need to start supporting students and their mental health issues.”

Both Abbasi and Mr. Hedlund, another math teacher at Wilcox, suggested that people must reach out to others who they think may be struggling. “If your friend seems a bit down lately, or you know they’ve been coping with some issues, pull them aside and ask ‘What’s up? Is everything okay?’ It makes a difference,” Hedlund advised. Abbasi set forth the idea that Wilcox administrators can train students of key social groups how to spot symptoms and signs of depression and other mental illnesses to prevent anything from escalating.

Additionally, one may have a large and supportive friend group at Wilcox, but when they leave to go off to college, that support system crumbles, which can lead to feeling utterly alone and depressed. Again, reaching out to others, even in college, can help tremendously in relieving another’s anxieties and troubles. Abbasi audibly wondered, “Where was the RA and others in Faisal’s life? Did they notice his behavior or see any signs of mental issues? We’ll never know.”

In a time of grief, Faisal’s family expressed their “deepest sympathy to the victims on campus at UC Merced” through a statement released through their attorney to the San Jose Mercury News. The statement read, “Faisal was a kind and respectful young man. He was always quiet and humble and excelled in school and academics. His teachers and friends always spoke well of him. At a time like this, our family, like any family, requests privacy. Please allow us to grieve and remember our son, brother, cousin and friend in private.” Our hearts go out to Faisal’s family and the victims.