Bed bugs invaded Johnson-MacFarlane hall. They conquered the third floor of the MacFarlane side, and are making incursions onto the second floor. Due to widespread paranoia of the invading army, other floors have instituted their own quarantine.
Seriously. I describe this situation as many of my friends see it. I’m writing this piece because this fear of bedbugs is largely unfounded, and the way students reacted was completely immature.
Yes, I realize that bedbugs are nasty beings. They come out while we sleep, biting us and sucking our blood. We have a primordial fear of these creatures. They spread easily, hiding in our beds and praying on us when we are most vulnerable. This does not excuse the immature reactions of students in J-Mac.
The simple fact of the matter is that they cause us no harm. JMac administration reacted swiftly to stop the infestation, and students need not have done anything more than was asked of them. Bed bugs are incredibly small bugs. Their bites do not cause pain or harm. I am not aware of a single person dying of bedbugs, at least not under normal conditions.
Despite their easy spread, they are usually very easy to detect and eradicate. Us being afraid of them is like the school bully being afraid of that that little mousy kid that everyone picks on. In no way am I saying that we should let bed bugs live happily; they must be killed. I am making an entirely different point.
The problem is that people are unnecessarily discriminating against others on infected floors because of the bed bugs. One floor, instead of setting an example of how to act, taped biohazard tape across all the doors leading to the upper floors.
They refused to let people from these floors hang out on their floors. They soaked their beds in bed bug repellant, perhaps a prudent step in prevention, but taken too far.
People who said the classic goodnight rhyme were viewed as insensitive and censored. I was personally asked by my RA to see my girlfriend outside of J-Mac to prevent infestation. The fear being spread around was ridiculous. We are university students.
We are smart; we should recognize that the bed bug situation will be handled. We have biological fears of creepy crawlies, but we are civilized and should be able to repress them for social interaction.
Bed bugs are a serious problem that must be eradicated. Perhaps JMac’s administration was slow in addressing the problem. But even with that, people should not have been acting the way they did. The remarkable lack of maturity was reminiscent of the stereotypic discrimination characterized as racism. I was shocked to say the least.
We are adults. In this instance, I am ashamed to be a member of the class of 2015. I sincerely hope the next time a crisis like this happens, we can act out of reason.
