by Will Gavett ‘12 and Asha Antoine ‘14

 May 1, 2011 will go down in history as the day that President Barack Obama announced that an operation to find and kill Osama bin Laden was a success. This is an event that affects almost every person in America, especially the current generation of students at Sherwood who have grown up in an age of terror brought on by the vicious attacks on 9/11 and the twisted ideals of a man who has become a real-life villain.

“[bin Laden] was the face of terror,” said junior Tyler Rodriguez, who lived in New York during the attacks on September 11 and was happy that bin Laden was found but not necessarily happy that he had to be killed. “The hurt is still there,” continued Rodriguez, who lost an uncle during the attacks and believes that the death of the victims can never be avenged. Still, he believes the death of bin Laden helps alleviate some of the pain.

While bin Laden’s death doesn’t affect everyone’s everyday life, it will shape the lives of the generation that grew up in this age of terror. His death does not have an impact on this generation solely because of the constant sense of alertness people had to adopt, but also because he created stereotypes that have troubled almost every Muslim in America, especially those who do not remember a lot from before 9/11.

“Muslims [seem] to equal terrorist jokes in the eyes of Americans,” said sophomore Karimat Affinnih, a Muslim student. “[bin Laden’s death] makes me feel relieved that he is not hurting people anymore,” said Affinnih. However, she believes that this event still puts Muslims under the spotlight, and she is not necessarily sure that bin Laden’s death will affect public opinion of Muslims that much.

While bin Laden’s death has an effect on high school students across the country, it has greater meaning for Sherwood students, especially, because of the school’s proximity to the Pentagon, one of the buildings attacked on 9/11. This could cause some major distress in the Sherwood student body because many students have parents who work at the Pentagon or places like it, meaning they have to live with a constant concern for their parents’ safety.

One of these students is junior Anne Stout, whose father works for the National Security Agency (NSA). “[The government] over-publicized the good things [about bin Laden’s death] but they under-played the negative repercussions that the death of bin Laden could have,” said Stout.

However, even though bin Laden’s death touches certain individuals more due to where they are from, their race, religion, or what their parents do for a living, it is blatantly obvious that this event has had an impact in some way, shape or form on every student attending Sherwood and any other high school in the country.

There is no greater evidence of how far reaching this event was than the pages of social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter. Within the hour Obama announced bin Laden’s death these sites were flooded with varying opinions of the situation. Whether the comments were praising the efforts of the United States government or rebuking the fact that everyone seems to be celebrating the death of another human being, it became clear that the death of bin Laden has its own significance to a generation of students across the country.