Sandra Scheuer

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Sandra Lee Scheuer (pronounced SHAW-yer) (August 11, 1949 - May 4, 1970) was a 20-year-old student at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio when she was killed by Ohio National Guardsmen in the Kent State shootings on May 4 1970.

Scheuer, an honors student in speech therapy, did not take part in the Vietnam War protests that preceded the shootings. She was shot through the throat with an M-1 semi-automatic military rifle from a distance of 130 yards (119 meters) while walking from one class to the next. She died within five or six minutes from loss of blood. According to the account of Bruce Burkland, a close family friend, Scheuer "was walking with one of her speech and hearing therapy students across the green. Neither Sandra nor the young man had anything to do with the assembly of students on the green, but yet, as an innocent passerby, Sandra was the victim of a confused National Guardsman's rifle."^{[#endnote_autonumber]}

Three other students were killed in the shootings: Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller and William Knox Schroeder.

The shootings led to protests on college campuses throughout the United States, causing hundreds of campuses to close because of both violent and non-violent demonstrations. The Kent State campus remained closed for six weeks. Just five days after the shootings, 100,000 people demonstrated in Washington, D.C. against the war.

Just after Scheuer's death in 1970, the English songwriter Harvey Andrews composed a song entitled ["Hey Sandy"], whose lyrics are addressed to her:

"Did you see them turn, did you feel the burn

Of the bullets as they flew?"

The song was remade by Polaris, an indie rock group, and served as the theme song to the popular Nickelodeon kids show, The Adventures of Pete and Pete. The re-written lyrics go as follows.

"Hey Smilin' Strange

You're lookin happily deranged

Can you settle to shoot me? [disputed line]

Or have you picked your target yet?

Hey Sandy

Don't you talk back?

Hey Sandy"

Scheuer had been a member of the Alpha Xi Delta sorority, and current members of this sorority speak in her memory each year on the Kent State University campus at the May 4 Task Force's commemoration of the 1970 tragedy.

Notes

↑ Burkland, Bruce (n.d.). Testimony on May 4 Archive website.[link]

References

Jedick, Peter (2006). "Rawls' Death Brings Back Sad Memory." Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), February 13, 2006, D3.

External links

[Sandy Scheuer page from May 4 Archive]

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