Sandra Lee "Sandy" Scheuer (; August 11, 1949 – May 4, 1970) was an American student at

Kent State University Kent State University (KSU) is a Public university, public research university in Kent, Ohio, United States. The university includes seven regional campuses in Northeast Ohio located in Kent State University at Ashtabula, Ashtabula, Kent State ...

Kent, Ohio Kent is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the largest city in Portage County, Ohio, Portage County. It is located along the Cuyahoga River in Northeast Ohio on the western edge of the county. The population was 28,215 at the 2020 United States ...

, when she was killed by

Ohio National Guard The Ohio National Guard comprises the Ohio Army National Guard and the Ohio Air National Guard. The commander-in-chief of the Ohio Army National Guard is the List of governors of Ohio, governor of the U.S. state of Ohio. If the Ohio Army Nation ...

smen in the

Kent State shootings The Kent State shootings (also known as the Kent State massacre or May 4 massacre"These would be the first of many probes into what soon became known as the Kent State Massacre. Like the Boston Massacre almost exactly two hundred years before (Ma ...

Background

Scheuer was born in

Youngstown, Ohio Youngstown is a city in Mahoning County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Ohio, 11th-most populous city in Ohio with a population of 60,068 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Mahoning ...

, the daughter of Sarah (Lacko) and Martin Scheuer. She had an older sister, Audrey. She was Jewish. She was an honors student in

speech therapy Speech is the use of the human voice as a medium for language. Spoken language combines vowel and consonant sounds to form units of meaning like words, which belong to a language's lexicon. There are many different intentional speech acts, suc ...

, and was a graduate of Boardman High School.

May 4, 1970

Scheuer did not take part in the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

protest A protest (also called a demonstration, remonstration, or remonstrance) is a public act of objection, disapproval or dissent against political advantage. Protests can be thought of as acts of cooperation in which numerous people cooperate ...

s that preceded the shootings. She was shot once in the neck with an M-1 rifle from a distance of 130 yards (119 m) while walking between classes. The bullet severed her

jugular vein The jugular veins () are veins that take blood from the head back to the heart via the superior vena cava. The internal jugular vein descends next to the internal carotid artery and continues posteriorly to the sternocleidomastoid muscle. Struc ...

and she died within five or six minutes from

loss of blood Bleeding, hemorrhage, haemorrhage or blood loss, is blood escaping from the circulatory system from damaged blood vessels. Bleeding can occur Internal bleeding, internally, or externally either through a natural opening such as the Mouth (human ...

. According to the account of her boyfriend Bruce Burkland, Scheuer "was walking with one of her speech and hearing therapy students across the green. Caught in the gunfire, neither Sandra nor the young man had anything to do with the assembly of students on the green." Three other unarmed students were also killed in the shootings:

Allison Krause Allison Beth Krause (; April 23, 1951 – May 4, 1970) was a student at Kent State University and one of four unarmed students shot and killed by soldiers of the Ohio Army National Guard in the May 4, 1970 Kent State shootings in Kent, Ohio. The ...

, Jeffrey Miller, and

William Knox Schroeder William Knox Schroeder (; July 20, 1950 – May 4, 1970) was a student at Kent State University, Ohio, when he was killed by Ohio National Guardsmen in the Kent State shootings. Background Schroeder was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of F ...

. The shootings led to protests and a national

student strike Campus protest or student protest is a form of student activism that takes the form of protest at university campuses. Such protests encompass a wide range of activities that indicate student dissatisfaction with a given political or academi ...

, causing hundreds of campuses to close because of both violent and non-violent demonstrations. The Kent State campus remained closed for six weeks. Five days after the shootings, 100,000 people demonstrated in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, against the war. Scheuer had been a member of the

Alpha Xi Delta Alpha Xi Delta (, often referred to as A-''"Zee"''-D ) is a women's fraternity founded on April 17, 1893. Baird's Manual is also available online hereThe Baird's Manual Online Archive homepage at Lombard College in Galesburg, Illinois, United Sta ...

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. In 2018 an exhibit in memory of Scheuer called "Sandy's Scrapbook", based on an actual scrapbook she kept while attending Kent State, opened at the University's May 4 Visitor Center.

In popular culture

Just after Scheuer's death, the songwriter

Harvey Andrews Harvey John Andrews (born 7 May 1943 in Stechford, Birmingham) is an English singer-songwriter and poet. Andrews has produced 16 albums singing his own songs, many of which have also been recorded by other artists. Andrews began his career i ...

composed a song titled "Hey Sandy", whose lyrics are addressed to her: In the song "

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

", which was written immediately after the shootings, folk rocker

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, forming the folk rock group Buffalo Springfield. Since the begi ...

made a reference to Scheuer in the chorus: Scheuer is also remembered in poet Gary Geddes' poem "Sandra Lee Scheuer", found in his 1980 collection ''The Acid Test''. An image of a memorial to Scheuer was included in the CD case to ''

The Argument The Argument may refer to: * The Argument (Fugazi album), ''The Argument'' (Fugazi album), 2001 * The Argument (Grant Hart album), 2013 * The Argument (film), a 2020 American film * The Argument (play), a 2016 play by William Boyd * The Argument (Wi ...

'' (2001) by

Fugazi Fugazi (; ) is an American post-hardcore band formed in Washington, D.C., in 1986. The band consists of guitarists and vocalists Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto, bassist Joe Lally, and drummer Brendan Canty. They were noted for their style-transc ...

References

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

br>''audio documentary''
pertaining to the Kent State shootings {{DEFAULTSORT:Scheuer, Sandra Lee 1949 births 1970 deaths American people of the Vietnam War 20th-century American Jews Kent State University alumni Kent State shootings People from Youngstown, Ohio Deaths by firearm in Ohio University and college killings in the United States

Background

May 4, 1970

In popular culture

References

Further reading

External links