Students Wounded At May 4 Shooting Return To Kent State

KENT, OH — Two former Kent State University students who were wounded during the May 4, 1970 shooting will return to the school as commencement speakers. Both students will be on campus on May 8 and May 9 for the One University Commencement and Advanced Degree Commencement.

On May 4, 1970, Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer and William Schroeder were killed during an anti-war protest when the Ohio National Guard opened fire on a crowd. Other students were injured as bullets flew into the crowd.

Dean Kahler was 20-years-old, a freshman at Kent, when he decided to attend his first protest rally on May 4, 1970. The decision changed his life forever. When the National Guard opened fire, a bullet pierced Kahler's spine and left him paralyzed from the waist down. He has been wheelchair-bound since the shooting.

Kahler is scheduled to be the commencement speaker on May 9 at the One University Commencement.

“I am honored to be asked to be the speaker at commencement,” he said. “I have always considered Kent State my second home. I like coming back and visiting Kent State as often as I can, and I am excited at the prospect of coming back.”

Grace was also a 20-year-old student when he was wounded during the May 4 shooting. He was an ardent anti-war activist and was voicing his displeasure over President Richard Nixon's decision to invade Cambodia, an escalation of the war in Vietnam.

During the protest, he was shot in the left foot. He will return to speak during the Advanced Degree Commencement on May 8.

“It is indeed a great honor for me to receive such a weighty invitation to serve as the graduate commencement speaker for spring 2020, 50 years removed from when the university experienced its worst day and month,” Grace said. “Few institutions faced such challenges, and none have done better, over the last quarter century, than Kent State, in meeting the many challenges that arose from that dark time in our history.”