Incident leaves Heights campus shaken, worried about impact on study abroad
Rattled Boston College students yesterday said news of the acid attack on four of their classmates in France has raised fears about the risks of studying abroad.
“It’s really scary because so many of our students are going abroad,” said finance student Courtney Severance, 20, who knows three of the four students who were burned by acid at a train station in Marseille. “It’s even scarier knowing them personally. All of them are super nice girls. All of them are really sweet and hard-working.”
Boston College students Courtney Siverling, Charlotte Kaufman, Michelle Krug and Kelsey Kosten were all briefly hospitalized, treated and released after the attack. French authorities arrested a woman with a history of mental issues and said terrorism is not suspected.
The acid was a weak solution of hydrochloric acid, thrown from a water bottle, according to a Facebook post by Krug.
On the Chestnut Hill campus, students were shaken and looking for answers.
“It’s an absolute travesty that people are going over to see a different culture and learn in a different academic setting and that anything like that would happen,” said Robert Harrington, 21, a senior studying economics. He added some students may now think twice about studying abroad.
“It will deter some students in the future. There’s been a lot of violence in Europe,” Harrington said, though he added, “Personally, it wouldn’t deter me.”
Griffin Pardales, 21, a senior studying history, said he wants to know more about the attack, specifically, if his classmates were targeted for some reason such as being foreigners or affiliated with a religious university.
“If they were wearing stuff that identified them as tourists or religious students, that is more disconcerting,” Pardales said.
Severance said the campus will rally around their classmates who were attacked and she’s confident her friends will recover well.
“Anyone going abroad has to be pretty independent and pretty strong to make that decision for themselves. They have the support of the whole BC community . ... They’re in the thoughts and prayers of all the BC students back in the States.”