By: Ben Briscoe, Contributing Writer, bbriscoe@smu.edu Posted: 4/25/07 First-year Weston Ashley went out to benches in front of his residence hall, Mary Hay, at 2 a.m. on the night of Oct. 12, 2006 to get his last nicotine fix before heading to bed, like he had done so many times before. But this night was different. As he sat alone in the cold air listening to The Killers on his iPod, a man Ashley had never seen before walked up to the four empty benches and sat down right beside him. "At first I didn't think anything of it," Ashley said. "He just asked me if he could buy a cigarette from me, and I said no and gave him one instead." The two then chatted for about 10 minutes about the lack of diversity at SMU before Ashley caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye of something alarming. "I remember turning to him and sticking out of his big puffy jacket was a butcher knife," Ashley said. "I just pretty much froze. In my head I was like, 'Oh my God, I am gonna die.'" But Ashley's nerves calmed, and his instincts kicked in. He quickly told the man goodnight and then walked briskly, "hell almost running," to his room and called the police. About 20 minutes later police caught up with the man. He was holding another student by knifepoint outside of the Owen Fine Arts building. While the man was quickly taken to the Dallas County Jail, the memory still lingers in Ashley's mind. "Every once and a while I will think about it, and my heart will skip a couple of beats," he said. "You feel you're so safe because we live in this Highland Park bubble where everything is so nice and pretty and clean, but the truth is that we're not safer here than anywhere else. It's a hard thing to realize." That's exactly how Virginia Tech Wildlife Science major Danielle Kulas said she felt after the shootings last Monday. "I just remember thinking at first that April Fools Day had already gone by. I couldn't believe this was happening here," she said. "The part that really baffled me was when I found out the first shooting was in the dorm right next to mine." The reason Kulas said she had a hard time believing that the shootings were happening was because her dorms had seemed so safe until then. According to VT's police crime logs, fewer serious crimes (such as murder, sex offenses, robbery, assault, theft and arson) occurred in the Tech's residential facilities in 2005, the last year with data available, than SMU's residential facilities have had in the last three months. In the whole of 2005, there were seven forcible sex offenses, 11 burglaries and seven cases of arson for a total of 25 incidents at VT's dorms. Since Jan. 1, SMU's residential halls have been the site of five assaults, 20 thefts, one arson and three criminal trespasses for a total of 29. For Jeanie Goodson, mother of incoming first-year Caroline, it's those numbers and last Monday's event at Virginia Tech that are causing her to worry about her child living by herself in the fall. "I would not say I am petrified about sending my girl off to college, but after Virginia Tech, her safety next year has been on my mind a lot," Goodson said. "But you can't keep your child in a Zip-lock bag; the best thing I can do is to tell her to be careful and hope for the best." That's exactly the policy that Residence Life and Student Housing Director Doug Hallenbeck likes to stress. "It's a unique and difficult balance between safety and security and being more of a jail state," Hallenbeck said. "People don't want to live where RAs are going in daily to do room checks, so we have to balance that sense of home with a sense of security." To do that, the university utilizes two main methods: a card-swipe access restriction to residents only and a staff of residential advisers and professionals who keep an eye out for any abnormalities. For Ashley, these systems are good, but they aren't enough. "I think that really helps. But no matter how much we try to prevent crime, people are people and they will find a way," he said. "Just keep an eye out for anything strange. It's the best way to stay safe. I mean it saved my life and someday it might save yours." Since the Virginia Tech shooting, the university has taken new measures to improve the safety of the campus. On Friday, a campus-wide e-mail asked students to update their Emergency Contact information and add their cell phone numbers. In the event of an emergency, a voicemail will be left on cell phones, in addition to a bulk e-mail and Web site updates. General information about SMUs emergency procedures is available at http://www.smu.edu/newsinfo/preparedness/. -- Original Source:SMU Daily Campus - April 25, 2007
"Norris, Mark William" <mnorris@mail.smu.edu>
C.U. Officials Discuss Response to Va. Tech
By Ben Eisen Sun Staff Writer Apr 25 2007 "Half of college students report having felt extremely depressed," said Ray Kim, assistant dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, to a crowd of students in Goldwin Smith's Hollis E. Cornell auditorium yesterday afternoon. "60 percent of students report feeling absolutely hopeless at times. 10 percent of students reported seriously considering suicide. How many people knew it was this bad?" No one raised their hands. Kim was one of four speakers on a panel yesterday afternoon to speak about the Virginia Tech tragedy and Cornell's level of preparedness for such emergencies. Hosted by Omega Phi Beta Sorority and Lambda Phi Epsilon, the goal of the discussion was to bring the past week's events home to our campus. Other speakers included George Sutfin, head of crime prevention at Cornell Police, Chief Curtis Ostrander who has worked for CUPD since before the 1983 shooting at Cornell, and Dr. Ya-Shu Liang, who works for Counseling and Psychological Services. "Every time something happens [response and prevention] plans are reevaluated," Sutfin said. "Columbine got everyone reevaluating response," added Ostrander. "New training was developed. I was one of the first officers who received training." Sutfin told the audience that Cornell is now in the process of making a contract with a company that alerts everyone on campus of emergencies by text message. "If something happens at an elementary school, it's easy to shut down, but Cornell is a small city, and it's very hard to shut down the entire campus. Studies show that 90 percent of students have cell phones, so [the new plan will] send texts to everyone in a circumference." Though the officers were unable not comment on their current response plans to the specific type of emergency that happened at Virginia Tech, Sutfin said that CUPD senior staff sat in on meetings to discuss changes to the plans while the panel was going on. He added that a lot of prevention rests in the hands of students. According to Sutfin, many students let unknown people into their dormitories, putting everyone at risk. He cited an incident when, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, he was able to get into a dorm, go into an unlocked room and "steal" a computer, without ever being asked who he was. Kim said that there is added pressure in a university setting, which often drives people to need help. He said that University policy forbids the administration from telling parents when their students show signs of problems unless the student provides consent, and Gannett and Cayuga Medical cannot tell the administration when students need help. This means that a lot of responsibility for reaching out to those in trouble rests in the hands of students. Liu spoke about the infrastructure that Gannett has implemented to help at-risk students through CAPS. "If students are in danger to themselves or others, we may break confidentiality," Liu said. "If someone called the hotline and said that they were going to kill people, we would force them into the hospital." She added that students have also used CAPS to help them cope with the Virginia Tech tragedy. This panel was the only community forum organized by students, according to Antonia de Jesus '09 of Omega Phi Beta, who helped arrange the event. "I got a call from my mother crying the day it happened," said de Jesus. "She had seen the pictures of all students. I looked it up on the internet, and I thought that something had to be done, so we put it all together." Tiffany Brutus '07, president of Omega Phi Beta, was concerned because Cornell students had not done more in response to the tragedy. "It's a big reflection on our generation. People care about it in the now, but not a couple days later. If you don't go to Virginia Tech, people forget about it." -- Original Source: Cornell Daily Sun - April 25, 2007
Jonny Lieberman <jdl46@cornell.edu>, <lieberman.jonny@gmail.com>
"Schools across Virginia and around the nation are supporting Virginia Tech during this difficult time. I only wish I could include them all in this illustration. My hope is that this illustration will indicate that, no matter what school we attend, today we are all Hokies." - Ben Lansing http://lansingcartoons.com/
While the images on this website cannot be reproduced without permission, permission is granted to send the above image for non-profit purposes to anyone that might be comforted by it under the condition that the image is not altered and credit is given to the artist. For other uses including media communications, please contact me at benjaminlansing@yahoo.com http://lansingcartoons.com/
Grace Cathedral Memorial San Francisco Tuesday April 24 2007
During a service in remembrance of the tragic shootings at Virginia Tech, the Rt. Rev. Marc Handley Andrus spoke about how his time at the university. informed his understanding of God. Andrus and his wife Sheila attended graduate school at the Blacksburg, Virginia, campus. The noon service on Tuesday April 24 2007 at Grace Cathedral was attended by about 70 people, including 20 or so Virginia Tech alums.
This was taken from the drill field, and the building is Burress Hall. After the ceremony was over, we all stood holding our lights for nearly ten minutes of silence. Finally, someone somewhere started singing the school song, and the crowd joined in. It progressed to various football chants - that's what Hokies know to do when in a large crowd. It wasn't especially somber, but I think everyone had had enough somberness already. Original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwtownsend/463683715/ Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0
Ben Townsend http://www.flickr.com/photos/bwtownsend/463683715/ Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0
The Morning News - Personal Essays It stunned the nation that the Virginia Tech murders took place; it shocked Virginians that they occurred in Blacksburg. A former longtime resident, BENJAMIN COHEN traces his connections to the tragedy. -- I drove home from Charlottesville in confused panic after cancelling my afternoon class. Noah Adams was on NPR talking about the stark clash of nature and humans, setting and event. It was the visual, sensory contrast between Blacksburg, the bucolic valley town in southwestern Virginia, and mass murder news story. That this human tragedy could happen there, in that natural majesty. From all the 11 scattered years I lived there, before moving to the University of Virginia last year, the bucolic descriptor is one that sticks. It’s exaggerated, I know, but it works. And it’s the one the media evoked all week: Blacksburg, a quaint, off-the-beaten-track bucolic college town nestled in the mountains of southwest Virginia. Being “nestled” also seems key, the town cradled by the mountains, the students by the valley. I walked that nestled town too many times to count, and ever after have the image of my son cruising down Draper Road sidewalks wearing his red Keds and pushing his toy lawnmower. Adams apparently had written about the New River a few years ago—a river paradoxically named, since it’s in fact one of the oldest in North America, if not the world—and thus knew the area. He was speaking in the first phase of tragedy, when people confront the fact that senseless things don’t make sense. This was before the pre-spin spin phase, when people talk about what people will soon be talking about: too many guns, not enough guns, no Bibles in schools, too much God in schools, moral decay, media glorification, video games, actual worldwide wars, daily death in Iraq, numbness, surveillance cameras will save us, mental illness is awful, failure of health-care system, campus judicial systems, parents, society, it’s “society’s” fault, and however else Nancy and Greta might try to understand it. After 9/11, they gave us, what, a three- to four-day opening phase? The duration is apparently proportional to death count; this time it lasted three to four hours. I didn’t know any of the victims, but everyone I know knew one or more. From this, I found there is only one direction with things like violent tragedy: It isn’t that I was fortunate not to know any of them directly, but that it was unfortunate so many did; you can’t feel better, you only feel worse or more worse. I went to Virginia Tech because its application didn’t require an essay. When I graduated, I had no idea why I’d chosen my major (chemical engineering), and I wasn’t even particularly fond of the school itself. But Blacksburg was significant to me. In this way, I have always been critical of an institution that has also come to define me; I placed the natural setting of Blacksburg as one thing, the human institution of Tech as another, as if they were separate, which they are not. So yes, I finally admit it, my adult identity was born there. There’s that. My biography’s tightly intertwined with the town, the valley, the school. I met my wife there. She had been a freshman in West Ambler Johnston Hall. Three months after graduation, we got married in the chapel on the Drill Field at the center of campus. I played wiffle ball out there all afternoon on my wedding day, getting a slight sunburn in the calm afternoon sun. The sunburn shows in the wedding pictures. The Drill Field is that seemingly fabricated collegiate setting, the only one admissions folks want you to see—frisbees, wiffle ball, rugby, picnics, sunbathers, dogs and tennis balls, kites. It’s also a good place to hold candle-light vigils. If anything, Blacksburg was known in the mid-’90s because of the Blacksburg Electronic Village. (It was the first “wired” town. Soon, obviously, everyplace was a wired town, so I guess it didn’t really matter anymore.) Yes, Axl Rose supposedly once stopped by The Cellar after a concert in nearby Roanoke, but I never found out if that was really true. When we, my wife and I, came back for graduate school later in the decade—for something called “science studies,” something explicitly not engineering—Blacksburg had become a football school. Plus, one year Outside magazine said it was a great place to live. So much hiking; the Appalachian Trail close by; lots of mountain biking; did you know they filmed Dirty Dancing in a mountain retreat just miles away? Yes, everyone does; rolling hills; serene sunsets; a great vegetarian restaurant downtown; cows, horses, sheep, farms; tubing on the same New River that enchanted Noah Adams. One summer I lost a T-shirt in that river, and my keys and a shoe. It wasn’t until reading the New York Times last weekend—”Students Recount Desperate Minutes Inside Norris Hall”—that I remembered my classes had been in Norris Hall that summer. Once when my wife was an undergraduate, there was a peeping Tom incident at the dorms. It was unsettling. That such a thing could happen in that little town. By the time we returned for our graduate stint—living the next county over, a few mountains to the west, in fact, not even in town—Blacksburg was a football school, and there had been a shooting at a local bar, several stabbings, and other violent incidents downtown. This added to my ambivalence about the school and the town and my place there. I didn’t see how I was tied to the area in the way I do now. My graduate department was likely the most liberal-leaning one on the generally conservative campus. Our offices were in the middle of the ROTC quad. We’d be talking about ethics and technology and social structure and the military-industrial complex inside; they’d be doing roll call and formations and hut-hut-huts outside. In further contrast to this, a fellow graduate student friend was an activist organizer in town. Her friend, another grad student and probably the most visible and active of the activists, was murdered by yet another peace activist, an unstable married man who was having an affair with her. His subsequent suicide kept the motive unclear. Unsettling, in that case, is a disrespectful understatement. It was horrific. Our children were born in Blacksburg. We lived there for 11 of our first 15 post-high school years: adulthood, education, dating, marriage, education, jobs, family. So it’s not only my biography that is interlaced with the town and the school, but my children’s as well. During the third week of my first semester teaching, after a lecture about the U.S.’s history of involvement in the domestic affairs of other nations, I walked back to my office and was stopped along the way by a friend who said only that “they hit the towers, they hit the buildings.” I had no idea what that meant. Sitting on the front porch of our building, the one facing the ROTC quad, on an amazingly crisp, clear, solid blue-sky day, someone else was the first to quote Fargo—“And it’s such a beautiful day,” she said, in disbelief. In such a placid town, nestled in the mountains of Virginia, we watched New York and the Pentagon burn. All of this, three months before our son was born. We had a lot of those “what kind of world…” conversations, all set against the backdrop of bucolic Blacksburg. When we moved into Blacksburg for our last year of studies, as a way to be closer to campus and friends and to live by foot more than car, we walked the mile from our house to downtown many times a week. Then we were true Blacksburg residents, with all the trappings, including first-name greetings at the coffee shop and that vegetarian restaurant and the credit union and the bookstore and the Greek restaurant and the farmer’s market. Our son pushed his toy John Deere lawnmower in front of him every time we walked downtown. He became “that adorable kid,” the one with the lawnmower in the red Keds. At the coffee shop, I recognized, though didn’t personally know, all the regulars. The one we called Stay-at-Home Dad always seemed odd, and my wife didn’t think he was really a father for the first year. (He was; we eventually saw his children.) Weird-Kid-Who-Should-Probably-Have-a-Job was always there too, usually playing backgammon with Stay-at-Home Dad. Unfriendly-Hippie Couple saw us every day for years, never once saying hello. Scowling peaceniks always confused me. A year after we moved to Charlottesville in 2005 after all that time in Blacksburg, that weird kid at the coffee shop was arrested, then escaped from jail, killed two people, and caused a lockdown on the Virginia Tech campus on the very first day of the semester. We watched the news from afar, absolutely stunned, completely silent that this was actually in, as the now-well-worn moniker has it, bucolic Blacksburg. College kids were being interviewed on CNN, terrified that this was their greeting to their new world. I still work with colleagues from Blacksburg. I spoke to my doctoral adviser, himself in the history department at Tech, days before the massacre last week, and had heard there’d been bomb threats over the past month. That’s eerie. Because of my own biography there, I knew what others there were already going through before this happened—another adviser was dealing with her husband’s death last year; a classmate had a devastating miscarriage a little while back; another friend’s younger brother had unexpectedly died in February. And then, as I was leaving my second of three classes Monday afternoon, here at the University of Virginia, someone asked if I’d heard about Virginia Tech. Yes, I’m from there, I said, misunderstanding what she was asking me. I fast-walked to my office and saw all the news. After I called my wife, hurriedly cancelled class, found my car to drive home, heard Noah Adams on the radio, scolded myself for being irritated by trivialities like CBS’s calling it Virginia Tech “University”—after that, I got home to find my family in the yard, the kids wanting to take a walk around the block. Though he hadn’t given it a second look for several years, my son grabbed his old toy lawnmower from the shed. Then my daughter got her baby stroller, and we walked around our peaceful violent American society. -Published April 24, 2007 Benjamin Cohen is an assistant professor of science, technology, and society at the University of Virginia. He also helps out at the McSweeney's web site. You can email him here. -- Archived with permission of the author. Original source: http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/personal_essays/blacksburg_and_biography.php
By: Benjamin Lammers Posted: 8/7/07 More than 350 representatives from Ohio's universities met at Ohio State's Fawcett Center last week to discuss school safety and the state of security and disaster response. Following the shootings at Virginia Tech last spring, Gov. Ted Strickland created a task force to look at the disaster preparedness of Ohio's universities. The task force, composed of representatives from Ohio's schools, has been meeting regularly to review campus safety and advise the governor on campus security. The Ohio College Campus Safety and Security Summit was a result of the task force's recommendations. Security experts from a number of schools spoke at the summit, including Col. Steven Flaherty, superintendent of the Virginia State Police. Strickland said in a press release campus security in Ohio is the primary responsibility of the state's schools. He asked how the state of Ohio can assist college campuses to improve security and safety in both public and private universities. Ohio Board of Regents Chancellor Eric Fingerhut said universal participation, including professors and students, is needed to maintain public safety. "We have learned that there is no simple cookie-cutter solution that fits all, and that we shouldn't expect that there are any simple, one-size-fits-all, quick fixes when it comes to this issue," he said in a press release. Ohio's colleges and universities were directed to complete the "Ohio Campus Security Checklist" for the Board of Regents by Aug. 24, which will outline actions each university needs to take during the long haul to improve security. Questions in the checklist include coordination, communication, support mobilization to disasters and protocols for identifying and addressing dangerous behavior by students, faculty and staff. Todd Stewart, director of the OSU Program for International and Homeland Security, said the purpose of the summit was not to focus only on shooting scenarios and acts of violence, but to include response to natural disasters. Fingerhut did not limit the discussion to human-caused disasters like the one at Virginia Tech. "This task force may have been instituted as a reaction to the shootings at Virginia Tech, but this summer we are talking about making sure that Ohio college campuses are ready for all kinds of critical incidents," Fingerhut said. Rick Amweg, assistant chief of University Police at OSU, said the summit was a great chance to learn from other institutions by discussing common goals for campus security. Amweg said OSU's security response plan is in good shape. "We were very prepared before Virginia Tech and continue to be prepared," he said. However, Amweg said the tragedy at Virginia Tech highlighted the need for new emergency communication procedures. He said the information from the meeting will be used by the Board of Regents to identify the best practices Ohio universities can use to prepare themselves. Stewart said OSU has made a considerable effort in preparedness. "Ohio State is in better shape than most schools in the state because we have more resources available," he said. Benjamin Lammers can be reached at lammers.62@osu.edu. -- Original Source:The Lantern - August 7, 2007
Police chief says campus safety to undergo change
By: BETH OBERLEITER Staff Writer Posted: 4/19/07 When the identity of gunman Cho Seung-Hui was released yesterday, an integral part of the Virginia Tech shootings investigation fell into place. Immediately, his image was plastered over media outlets across the country, and experts and acquaintances analyzed his psyche, looking to explain his actions. But the time gap between the two shooting incidents continues to raise questions about why students had little warning about the impending danger. Pitt Police Chief Tim Delaney said that notifying students of an emergency can become a complex situation that involves careful thought and planning. He said each situation is case-specific and should be handled within context. "You have to be flexible in your planning. Things that may apply in another campus may not apply here," he said. Delaney said Pitt students would be notified by a mass e-mail if there were an emergency involving the University. Through this, they would hope to reach students who could access their e-mail from cell phones, as well as professors and administrators who would filter the information down. Pitt sophomore Suzie Culhane didn't find out about the shootings at Virginia Tech until Monday evening and was shocked that the campus didn't shut down after the first shooting. Even though she said that she felt safe in class on Tuesday, she thought a lot about how random and senseless the act was. "You can't ever be completely safe," she said. "That's how the world is today. You just have to deal with it." Delaney said he would use the annunciator on the fire alarm system to alert students to stay in a safe and secure location if there was a violent act on campus and the suspect had not been found. "I'm constantly thinking about the worst-case scenario," Delaney said, adding that he is constantly thinking up new solutions for evolving situations. Pitt has 300 cameras functioning throughout the University as well as electronic locks on 80 percent of campus buildings. The buildings can be electronically secured from the communications room with as little as the click of a mouse. The electronic locks allow for people to exit the building in compliance with fire codes. Every Pitt Police officer is also trained in "rapid deployment for active shooters," which is practiced in case they need to infiltrate a building. The Pitt police are part of the emergency response unit in Pittsburgh, and they work directly with the city's response team. The Department also has the ability to block traffic from Forbes and Fifth avenues using 15 traffic control points. This method was installed after the events of Sept. 11, 2001. In this case, only emergency vehicles traveling to and from the hospitals would be allowed on the roads. The situation would be monitored by a "unified command post," Delaney said, which would be made of the administrative heads of each University department. This group would make informed decisions based on the development of the crisis. Although he said Pitt's campus safety is very progressive, Delaney will have a staff meeting with his supervisors this week, where they will discuss hypothetical emergency situations and solutions. He predicts campuses will probably make revisions to their safety plans to recognize warning signs that a student may be mentally or emotionally disturbed. Social and academic issues can pressure students into irrational thinking, and he said the Pitt police meet habitually with the housing department and residence life to discuss potential problems in students. Even people who were not directly affected by the incident are feeling the weight of its effect. "It's saturating people," Delaney said, "and they're starting to become affected by it emotionally." Pitt freshman Kelly McCabe can relate to this feeling, and she said that she was in shock when she found out about the shootings on Monday afternoon. "That could happen anywhere. It's scary because you think you're safe," she said. Originally from a more rural area, McCabe said that it was hard to shake the "small-town feel" of thinking this these types of situations won't affect her. The shooting forced her to realize that anyone could become a victim. She now has more appreciation for the everyday safety procedures she encounters, such as signing in guests at her dormitory. "I definitely think I have to be more aware and more cautious," she said, but added that she feels safe on campus because she has never had any problems. Culhane said that, in her opinion, campus is safe from preventable disasters, but she has a harder time grasping the reason behind the Virginia Tech shootings. "Something like this just makes you think, because there's not really an explanation," she said. -- Original Source:The Pitt News - April 19, 2007
ANOTHER INCONVENIENT TRUTH: The Tragedy at Virginia Tech
Bethany Gizzi and Christine Plumeri 26 Apr 2007 The tragedy at Virginia Tech on April 16th, 2007 is no doubt on many of our minds. We struggle with the impossible task of trying to understand how such a horrific act of violence could occur on a beautiful, thriving college campus. Some of us have to try to explain this to our young children. We turn to the media for information, for facts, evidence, and perhaps, an explanation for something that is so difficult for us to comprehend. As those who work in the media work tirelessly to gather information and share it with the public, we cannot help but notice that almost all of the attention thus far seems to be on individual, blame-centered explanations for why this troubled young man took his and 32 others' lives. Certainly, this is understandable and necessary to help us to make sense of such incredulous violence. Yet, we wonder why not also focus on the larger, cultural, macrolevel factors that are common denominators in our nation's acts of mass murder in the workplace and in educational institutions? We would like to raise our voices to encourage the media to follow one of the most important aspects of this story. One which can provide us with an understanding of this tragedy and a way in which we can create positive and necessary social change out of this tragic act. As professors of Sociology, we study and teach courses on Sex & Gender and Criminology. It is obvious to us that the time is now to face the issue of gender and gender based violence. This is not just a gun control or "hawk versus dove" debate and this is not just a woman's issue. To quote Jackson Katz, an anti-violence educator who writes and lectures on gendered violence, "we need to say this is a men's issue", too (www.jacksonkatz.com). In 2003, according the F.B.I.'s arrest-based Uniform Crime Reports, 90.1% of homicides were perpetrated by males and 77.5% of their victims were other males. The perpetrator of these violent acts at Virginia Tech was male. In fact, this crime is only the most recent of a long history of mass shootings committed by males in this country - many of them committed by young men and boys at educational institutions. You may recall the stories: 2 killed and 7 wounded by 16 year old Luke Woodham in Pearl, Mississippi in 1997; 3 killed and 5 wounded by 14 year old Michael Carneal in West Paducah, Kentucky in 1997; 5 killed and10 wounded by 13 year old Mitchell Johnson and 11 year old Andrew Golden in Jonesboro, Arkansas in 1998; 2 killed and 22 wounded by 15 year old Kip Kinkel in Springfield, Oregon in 1998; 15 killed and 23 wounded by 18 year old Eric Harris and 17 year old Dylan Klebold in Littleton, Colorado in 1999; 2 killed and 13 wounded by 15 year old Charles Andrew Williams in Santee, California in 2001; 2 killed by 15 year old John Jason McLaughlin in Cold Spring, Minnesota in 2003; 10 killed by 16 year old Jeff Weisse in Red Lake, Minnesota in 2005; 6 killed and 5 wounded in an Amish school house by 32 year old Carl Roberts in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania in 2006; 33 killed and 15 wounded by 23 year old Cho Seung-Hui in Blacksburg, Virginia in 2007. These are not the only stories of male-perpetrated gun violence, but those that received the most media coverage over that past decade. In the coverage of each of these stories, including the murders at Virginia Tech, the media has failed to appropriately address the fact that men and boys are committing these crimes. It is time for that to change. Addressing the issue of male-perpetrated violence is not about blaming men, nor is it about locating the cause of violence in a biological explanation of aggression, given that the rates and contexts of male violence vary significantly across cultures and among individual males within them. It is also not about expensive, band-aid solutions such as metal detectors and armed security, over long-term, meaningful societal transformation. Rather, we must address the ways in which we socialize our young boys in our culture. Masculinity becomes associated with dominance, aggression, power and violence and these characteristics are encouraged, accepted and perpetuated. We have to stop believing that "boys will be boys" who grow up to kill people with guns. Boys are taught, and they see, hear and live what they learn. If these crimes had all been committed by young women, we would no doubt be asking ourselves "why?" How could a young woman perpetuate such an act of horrible violence against someone else? It would be even more unthinkable than it already is. Yet current social trends show that we are increasingly socializing our girls into more traditionally masculine characteristics as they seek to gain power and equality in our patriarchal society. As long as masculinity, and more importantly power, is associated with aggression and violence, it may be just a matter of time before females start lashing out in similar mass, destructive ways. Well, we should be asking ourselves that same question now instead of ignoring the fact that these perpetrators are male. In doing so, we are accepting the association of aggression and violence with masculinity. That should be unacceptable to all of us - men and women. We must stop ignoring the importance of gender socialization and its strong, consistent correlations with many forms of violent crime. We owe it to our sons and daughters to have this conversation and to start changing the way we raise our young men. Bethany Gizzi & Christine Plumeri Instructors of Sociology Monroe Community College bgizzi (at) monroecc.edu cplumeri (at) monroecc.edu -- Original Source: http://rochester.indymedia.org/newswire/display/20291/index.php Licensed under Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication.
Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication
Virginia Tech tragedy causes campus safety issues to surface at AU By Bethany Kirby Assistant State & Local Editor One question has probably crossed every college student's mind in the last three days. What if it had happened to us? It's a valid question. Virginia Tech, which lies in the heart of the college town of Blacksburg, Va., is similar to Auburn in both size and spirit. Cho Seung-Hui, who was identified as the gunman in Monday's Virginia Tech massacre, took the lives of 32 of his fellow students before taking his own. It has sent universities across the country into a heightened state of awareness about their own preparedness for extreme incidents. "Auburn University has a comprehensive emergency response plan that is practiced frequently," said Christine Eick, director of risk management and safety. "The University has really put a lot of resources into our emergency management and planning," Eick said. "It is something we take very seriously." The University has periodic drills in training for emergency situations. Eick said this develops the communication between the University and the emergency response teams such as the FBI, the Auburn Police Division, the Opelika Police Department, the Lee County Sheriff's Office and the Alabama State Troopers. Eick said the drills include practice in a variety of possible scenarios, so the teams will have a good framework for any type of emergency. "We have actually planned and drilled on persons with weapons," Eick said. Although the most recent drill was different than the situation at Virginia Tech, Eick said it was actually conducted on a larger scale. "It's pretty hard to give out reassurances at this time, because it was a horrific event," Eick said. But she emphasized that for Auburn, emergency management and response is a priority. Capt. Tom Stofer of the Auburn Police Division said there is a school crisis plan for situations like this one in Auburn. "It just basically gives us our protocol to respond to any crisis on any campus," Stofer said. This includes the University, high schools, middle schools and elementary schools. "It covers all type of emergency situations, both natural and man-made," Stofer said. Stofer said it is hard to say exactly what would happen with an incident like this in Auburn. "Every situation is unique in and of itself," Stofer said. "Every situation would demand a response that's unique in and of itself." Stofer said that if another shooting happened tomorrow, it would be different than the one on Monday. "Every situation is different," Stofer said. "Hopefully those agencies that respond ... have the training and flexibility to make wise decisions. Time will tell what things could have been done better." Jamie Duff, a junior in human development and family studies, is from Williamsburg, Va., and many of her friends are students at Virginia Tech. "It's reality — those are my friends," Duff said. "I have a connection with them." Because she knows people closely involved, Duff said it is as real to her as if it had happened at Auburn. Duff said she can't help but compare Virginia Tech and Auburn University — the two schools are similar in size, and the town of Blacksburg is a small college town much like Auburn. "It has the same feeling," Duff said of the similar atmosphere among students at Virginia Tech. "People are questioning why, needing something to blame," Duff said. "People want to place blame on something. "And I think some people right now are looking more at the blaming than the feelings of the people involved. We don't need to turn that into anger yet." -- Original Source: Auburn Plainsman - April 18, 2007
By:Bethany Morris Posted: 4/20/07 n In reaction to the Virginia Tech shootings, different advocacy groups are focusing on gun control and security as issues that should be addressed after this latest tragedy. While these are valid points, doesn't the problem stem from mental-heath care? It is nearly impossible to get individuals into mental-health facilities after they turn 18 unless they commit themselves or have committed some act of violence against themselves or others. If the professor who had tried to get Cho Seung-Hui help had been able to get him committed to residential treatment (treatment that he had needed for years) this tragedy might have been prevented. Unfortunately, this young man was too far gone to acknowledge his need for treatment, and his behavior went unchecked. Bethany Morris CFA '09
I'm from Virginia, and I know students at Va. Tech. I've been watching the irksome news coverage. Death is always sad, but the silver lining is that it brings people together. Solidarity is why people are so compelled to tune in, and while Facebook has been great for that, the media sucked. Facebook may be prone to rumors, but you can tell who's missing and who to be concerned about. The media, however, have been eking out widespread political implications of this tragedy, instead of bringing people together. This event does have political ramifications, but the media has missed the mark by saying things like, in a nutshell, "He was born in a different country! Let's make this about immigration, despite the fact that most of his formative experiences were here in the US because he had lived here legally since he was eight!" Or there's "How on earth could this psycho get a gun? Well, it was a completely mundane, legal purchase, and he bought it with 'chilling simplicity.' Let's interview the merchant and harp on gun control!" Even on a 24-hour network, there are no gray areas in politics, so their coverage is ill-suited even for the wider audience. Gun control and free speech may be slippery slopes, but when free speech demonstrates a violent psychosis, how about a little gun control? I hate to be blunt, but we all know the Cho type, and as individuals, we should reach out like the teacher did. As a campus policy, I'm not suggesting that loners should be branded on the forehead, but when a kid confuses fantasy and reality, expresses violent fantasies and suicidal thoughts, and finally gets sent to the counseling center while you've got him in the straightjacket, confiscate his registered guns. Bethany Quinn Senior and former Hurricane columnist -- Original Source:The Miami Hurricane - April 20, 2007
Arizona State University students gather for a candelight vigil to honor and remember the students affected by the Virginia Tech tragedy. Original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8085403@N04/481123094/ Photo courtesy of Bettina Hansen
Permission: Bettina Hansen http://www.flickr.com/photos/8085403@N04/481123094/
Hokie Hope Day at GEICO in Fredericksburg, VA
My thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of our lost Hokies. This has been a very difficult time for all of us. The memorial issue of Virginia Tech magazine was done very nicely and inspired me to share our support. I am a 1992 graduate of Virginia Tech. I work as a Training Manager at GEICO in Fredericksburg, VA. There are several GEICO offices across the country and the entire company participated in Hokie Hope day. I was proud that my school and my work came together during this most difficult time. I wanted to share a picture of my team.
Thursday, April 19, 2007 I first saw Blacksburg, and what was then V.P.I., almost fifty years ago, the summer of 1960. A member of my high school's chapter of the Future Farmers of America, I was attending the FFA's Virginia state convention - a wide-eyed rising 9th grader. About 5 foot six, I weighed little more than a large sack of chicken feed. I was a member of our school's second-string crop judging team; we did surprisingly well. Blacksburg was the "sleepy little college town" in the mountains then, home to a small agricultural and mechanical/military school and little else. You could count the traffic lights and have fingers left over. V.P.I. was essentially all-male and all-white; being a member of the corps of cadets was the norm. Foreign students and women on campus were not. The student body generally came from rural and small-town Virginia, where it was highly regarded. A turkey was the school mascot. It was so not UVA, William and Mary, or Hollins. It was not even V.M.I. Things change and stuff happens. By the time I graduated from high school V.P.I. was beginning its remarkable transformation into a major university. My lackluster high school record and vague aspirations did not make me highly sought after college material. But V.P.I. took a chance and accepted me. They had probably seen worse. After purgatory at their Danville Branch I finally arrived in Blacksburg in the fall of 1966. Evidence of the major commitment to transform Tech was everywhere: new buildings, overflowing dorms, expanding academic programs, a much larger and more diverse student body (though still not enough girls), and a major emphasis on athletics, mainly football. We even managed a traffic jam on some Saturday afternoons in the fall. Off-campus housing grew, a fine off-campus book store opened, along with a decent restaurant or two. Long hair and an underground newspaper appeared. The 60's arrived at Tech and Blacksburg sometime in the 70's, but it arrived. I should have been happy at Tech and Blacksburg, but I was not. Blacksburg seemed like the end of the earth. I called it Bleaksburg, a reference to more than its weather three seasons of the year. Driving into town one Sunday I nearly ran off the road laughing at a road sign where someone had written "armpit of the nation" under the word Blacksburg. The school's administrators - many holdover's from its days as a military school - seemed to be truly hostile to students. Their martial vision of what college life should be was not my vision. It was a conservative campus and I was, without much self consciousness, becoming quite liberal, at least by Virginia standards. I began to enjoy walking on their grass. My first fall on campus saw the football team invited to what I believe was its first bowl game, the Liberty Bowl in Memphis. We were to play the University of Miami. I remember walking across campus one cold, cold night headed downtown for some food (I hated the food at Shanks) and seeing a student-made sign hanging in the wind. "Beat Miami" it said. Blacksburg, Miami. Blacksburg, Miami. Hunkered into the wind I had a hard time wrapping my mind around any idea that contained those words together. Yes, true to my school, I did drive what seemed like halfway across America in my Corvair to attend that game. But I wanted out. That would not be easy. I had just changed majors, from engineering to political science. PoliSci allowed the most electives at Tech and this would give me the chance to pretend I was at a liberal arts college where, by that time, I discovered I wanted to be. My academic record at that point was not much better than my high school record, making a transfer problematic. And there was a war on and a military draft, not something to be taken lightly. I needed that 2-s deferment. And I doubt I could have convinced my parents that it was a good idea to transfer. After all they were paying for my little adventure in academia. My salvation came from an unlikely series of events. That January a friend at UVA invited me to Charlottesville for a week-end. He said he would get us some dates from Mary Washington College and we would have a great time; might get lucky. I was all for a great time and good luck, so plans were made. That Friday came and with it a snow storm. I said what-the-hell and made for Charlottesville. The weather worsened and I was lucky to make it to campus. The train from Fredericksburg was canceled, as were the events of the week-end. What to do? He had a friend who had just returned from a semester aboard a ship that had sailed around the world. We went to see him. Still very much overwhelmed by the experience, he told stories for hours. When we left he gave us literature about the college program and said we should apply as soon as possible. Sounded good to me. Fast forward and I returned from that Semester at Sea with a larger view of myself, my world, and Blacksburg. Virginia Tech would continue to annoy me from time to time as it seemed slow closing the gap between what I wanted of it and what it could deliver. But I finally had matured enough to begin to take advantage of what it did offer, and to appreciate that wonderful place in the Virginia mountains, Blacksburg. I now have two degrees from Tech, having returned in the '80s for a Master's in Urban and Regional Planning. My wife also has two degrees from Tech. She grew up just outside Blacksburg. Her sister in-law works in Norris Hall, second floor. I have wonderful friends in Blacksburg who worked for Tech for many years. Even though I also have a degree from UVA and have great respect for the University, I am a Hokie. I have marveled at Tech's growth, been amazed at the transformation of Blacksburg into a world-class small city. So watching the news over the past few days has been hard. The violent death and injury of so many students and faculty at the hands of a psychopath renders words inadequate to convey the horror. One cannot look into the faces of horrified students and anxious or grieving parents without becoming one of them. Trying to make sense of it all seems overwhelming. And yet that is what each of us will try to do, needs to do. The young man with two handguns shot at us all. As tragic as the events of last Monday morning were we have the ability to make them worse. And we will. I could feel it as I was watching the first reports on CNN. Even as the news was happening I could feel the ramp up to what was coming: the second guessing, criticizing, the self-righteous placing of blame, the spin in service to political agenda. Even before we had time to learn the fate of friends and family, grieve, or learn the name or fate of the gunman, the process was well underway. Our TV hosts struggled to learn just where Blacksburg was and fumbled about trying to describe a university they knew little about. Tech was both a major university with 26,000 students and "insular" according to Brian Williams, who also placed it in the Smoky Mountains. While we were all trying to reconcile the image of a peaceful, semi-rural college environment with violence we usually associate with our urban areas or foreign theaters of war, the talking heads moved from conveying what little they knew about the horror unfolding on campus to asking leading questions and poking around trying to find an angle. They think they are reporters. It bled and it led for hours on end. After asking students what they saw or heard Wolf Blitzer and the other CNN reporters (I use the term loosely) made a point of asking if they still felt safe, if they blamed the University and if the were planning to transfer. It took a while before they stopped seeming surprised when the students usually said they loved their school, the community, and had not considered leaving. I thought generally the students interviewed sounded much more thoughtful than their hosts. And without the "like, you know what I'm saying." I was proud of them. Once it appeared that the gunman was dead and there was a two hour gap in the shootings the focus shifted to finding a way to question the University's handling of the situation. Well before any of the details were to fill out the timeline our TV hosts were pouncing, safely behind the camera miles away from danger or responsibility past filling commercial-safe airtime. Without possibly having the facts with which to assess situation they began to invite questions of competency of local law enforcement and the judgment of school administrators. When will we come to understand that when someone prefaces a statement, "I don't understand why ___", they really don't. You are being set up. Soon "experts" with little or no knowledge of the specifics began to appear and try to shape our view of the tragedy. Dr. Phil appeared early. We eventually heard from Ted Nugent (FOX?) who said this would not have happened if students were allowed to legally carry guns on campus. He did not mention bows and arrows. Can they work in Springer next? If we were not dealing with a real human tragedy, real suffering and loss, this would almost be funny. It is not funny. Once we learned the gunman was a student and was born in South Korea the press was perplexed. Even though he had lived in the US most of his life - since he was 8 years old - he was Korean. Since South Korea is an ally of the United States it has been difficult for the press to figure out how significant that was or how to play it. Now if he had been from the Middle East... Few bothered to remark that the killer was a young man and that young men are have almost exclusive ownership of this type of serial murder. You assumed the killer was male, didn't you? I did. I didn't expect the media to go there and they didn't. We now know he was recognized as a loner and "troubled," and had come to the attention of the school as such. He had received at least some attention from mental health and law enforcement professionals. The NYTimes gave us this morning, "Officials Knew Troubled State of Killer in '05." Well he was not a killer in '05. He was just a student with problems, probably not that unlike any number of other students on campuses from coast to coast. The headline whispers that the "officials" are now partially responsible for the crime. I am sure that these professionals wish now they could have seen into the future and done something. But I doubt even Cho Seung-hui could have done that in '05. Being "troubled" and dead brings us to the possibility that the tragedy includes Mr. Cho. While I am sure many would recoil at this so soon, the compassion and forgiveness that my Christian countrymen so often trot out as a model for others, might not be misplaced for this very mentally ill young man and provoke wonder how he became so bitter and twisted. No, it is much easier and entertaining to now find fault with the living, those doing their very best to ensure safety of others when that still, unfortunately, was not sufficient. Yes, I am sure campus police and other university officials wish they had done some things differently Monday morning. Given the contents of the package Mr. Cho sent to NBC that morning between shooting it is certainly possible only the location, names and number of future victims would have changed. What is likely however is that the number Mr. Cho's victims will continue to grow as some try to use the tragedy for their own ends. Regarding making sense of it all, once again our dim-bulb President got it wrong. He said on campus trying to mean well, It's impossible to make sense of such violence and suffering. Those whose lives were taken did nothing to deserve their fate. They were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now they're gone - and they leave behind grieving families, and grieving classmates, and a grieving nation. Well, George, making sense of things is what what people at Universities try to do, and with some success. The question is what sense we will make of it. Don't try to suggest impossibilities at a place based on possibilities. And they were not in the "wrong place at the wrong time." A convenient cliche, but again off the mark. They were in the right place, Blacksburg, Virginia Tech. Go Hokies. posted by Bibb at 5:13 AM -- Original Source: http://bibbedwards.blogspot.com/2007/04/virginia-tech.html Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0.
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0
After I got the email about the first shooting, I came to campus to get in to the radio station. I was walking by the power plant and saw 15-20 ambulances behind McBryde/Norris. I had no idea about the second shooting at this point, but the timing indicates that this was taken right as people were being taken out of the building.
Being in student media, three representatives went to the first press conference to find out what was going on. At this point we thought it was still only one shooting. Larry Hinkler saying that there were over 20 fatalities was by and large the worst moment of my life.
This is the back of the academic buildings after the press conference. I counted well over 20 ambulances on the walk back to the radio station.
By Billy McMorris Apr 17 2007 John Manetta Once Told Me In early modern Europe the infant mortality rate was astronomical. Crude medical practices led to a high casualty rate for mother and child alike. In many cases, new mothers would be forced to rely on lying-in-maids to handle maternal responsibilities, while they recovered from the exhausting and traumatic experience of child birth. Lying-in-maids were generally post-menopausal widows, who were unable to mother children themselves. If new- born children were to become sick or die, grieving mothers, in some cases already afflicted with post partum depression, would look for some sort of explanation for why their child did not survive infancy. In some cases, the dazed and depressed mother would come to a genius conclusion: the lying-in-maid was a witch. Accusations were launched against close family friends and next door neighbors ... even the child's grandmother could find herself burned at the stake if she did not make sure that baby survived until the mother could fulfill her maternal role. These infertile women could not use their feminine power to care for the infant, and instead chose to use sorcery to bring about harm. Apparently all one needs is a scapegoat to survive the grieving process. America, however, is no different than these mourning mothers. Any major tragedy is immediately followed with a blame game of epic proportions. Calls for inquiries, hearings, firings and resignations are launched before words of condolence are even expressed. When we as a culture engage in this sort of "dialogue," we take the event away from those who are affected by it, and try to center it around our own vanity. It is perhaps the most despicable thing about our culture; it's even more revolting than a cult following of Paris Hilton. But still, everyone is chiming in on Virginia Tech. The student activists are complaining that, "if it wasn't for Charlton Heston or the 'gun nuts,' this would have never happened." Can't the explanation for such an event simply be an evil person doing an evil thing? Is it really Charlton Heston's fault that some kid went crazy? Campus police representatives say that "there was no indication of any possible motive." Evil sounds like a pretty fair assessment of the situation. Nothing but pure evil could truly describe what Cho Seung-Hui did just four days before the eighth anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre. Psychotherapists have called the murderer's suicide note "disturbing." "Evil" however, seems a more appropriate word. This is, after all, the same note that the 23-year-old South Korean before killing two people. This is the same note that he wrote before before reloading and taking away 30 more bright futures. In the note, he used the cliché suicide phrase, "you caused me to do this," as if writing it down on paper would make it true. But no one caused him to do this; only pure evil can drive someone to do something so remarkably despicable and cowardly. Various Virginia Tech students and their parents are calling for resignations and firings because their children could have been killed due to the inadequate response to the first vicious killing. These same people have not given a second thought to the actual victims or their families that did lose a child. That idiot who lives in your hall is probably still telling that story about how "he almost went to Virginia Tech." Whoa, that's spooky you herb, some people actually go there; in fact, some people just got murdered there. You might have even seen it on the news. These self-centered malcontents try to do everything they can to make the tragedy about them. The presidential candidates have begun explaining their positions concerning gun control and second amendment rights. At a time like this, it is disgusting to hear Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton (in her new Southern accent) discuss their stance toward gun control, just as it is repulsive to hear John McCain pander to the National Rifle Association. They are no better than Michael Moore, who is now drooling over the prospect of a sequel to Bowling for Columbine. These brats and blamers only serve to shift the attention away from the tragedy that befell 32 students and professors, and instead make this horrifying event an impersonal political debate or personal tale. We have plenty of time to do that later. For now, let's put down those petitions advocating enhanced gun control or handgun-friendly campus buildings. Why don't we raise money for the families of that coward's tragic victims instead? Rather than telling the story about a kid you know who went to Virginia Tech, why don't you sit down and think about that anonymous Hokie who was robbed of his future. For now though, let's think about the victims, their families and those that protect us. Let's think about Ryan Clark, one of the first two victims; he died trying to calm that murderous coward down. Let's think about the heroism of Prof. Liviu Librescu, who blocked his classroom door with his own body to give his students time to escape before suffering a fatal gunshot wound. Be thankful that we, too, have professionals willing to protect our university and its students. Thank your R.A.; thank a CUPD officer; thank Robert Davis and Antwan Sampson for making sure you have a Cornell I.D. before entering the library. And thank God for giving us men and women that are here to make sure we never suffer a tragedy of this magnitude. But most of all, think about the terror that all these victims must have experienced before meeting an untimely end. Now tell me; do your anecdotes and agendas seem that important now? Billy McMorris is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences. He can be contacted at wjm27@cornell.edu. John Manetta Once Told Me appears alternate Wednesdays. Comments: 'only pure evil'? Hi Billy, I agree with you that it is appalling that the blame game started even before all victims are identified. It is quite ridiculous to start blaming gun control laws, finger pointing the president and police, and forming inquiry panels to find every little fault. But I strongly disagree with you when you say Cho's motivation was 'only pure evil'. In a way, Cho was a victim himself - a victim because no one tried to help him. He was very lonely, angry, and troubled. There were many warning signs before the massacre happened. He didn't just wake up one day and snapped; he didn't get up early 5:30am in the morning because he suddenly wanted to kill. No one is born evil; no one truly wants to hurt another. If something like this happens, we must examine the circumstances that make people so resentful that they feel they have no recourse but to commit suicides and homicides. So I will make blame. I blame the university for not heeding the long warning signs. I blame the university counseling for not trying to help him. Cho voluntarily went to a mental hospital and was released; he was taking prescription drugs. Are the psychologists so incompetent that they couldn't see he was depressed enough to be suicidal? Did no one at the hospital try to reach out to him, connect with him, and get his trust enough to reveal what is troubling him? There is reason to believe he may have been sexually molested. When police went to search for his parents, the house was deserted. If it were the case that Cho was abused at home or at one point assaulted, then it is not his fault he came to saw the world as not a happy place. No one tried to show him otherwise; no one. I don't blame the students for not trying to be friends with him. But I am shocked at the behavior of some of the professors especially Nikki who saw him as a troublesome student that should be kicked out of her class. I commend Professor Roy for having to courage to help Cho and giving him one-on-one workshops. It is the responsibility of professors to not only teach students but also help them and try to make them individuals who will make society thrive. It is therefore only appropriate to not only give condolences but also try to find reasons that could have led to this nightmare so that this could have been prevented. Yes, blaming the president and police for two hour delay in e-mail message and asking for tighter (or looser) gun control laws is ludicrous because they amount to nothing but finding scapegoats and furthering political agendas. But blaming the university counseling, callous people who drove Cho to his isolation and depression, and people for not heeding the long warning signs is not only appropriate but wise so that in future we can help people like Cho. -May Zaw Senior in College of Arts and Sciences President of Origami Club By May Zaw (not verified) at April 18, 2007 - 4:46pm ---- I agree with you. It really bothers me how many people's knee-jerk response to such a tragic event is to find a scapegoat, without even taking time to mourn for the victims and their loved ones. It does seem strange that he was allowed to stay at VTech despite all the warning signs. Even though hindsight gives you 20-20 vision, the suicidal tendencies coupled with the plays he wrote for writing class ought to have set some alarm bells ringing. But there is no use pointing fingers at anyone - none of it will ever change the fact that over 30 people died on Monday. My prayers are with Virginia Tech. By Nikhil Chandra (not verified) at April 18, 2007 - 11:55pm ---- To the Editor Almost as distressing as the horrific event at Virginia Tech is the incessant focus of the media and public on understanding the "rationale"behind the killings. That focus is misplaced. As a psychiatrist it is obvious to me and many of my colleagues that what is really at work here are the manifestations of an underlying mental disorder. From all the descriptions Mr. Seung-Hui demonstrated an almost textbook example of paranoid schizophrenia. He was motivated to kill because of his delusional thinking. He had grandiose delusions- irrationally saw himself as a martyr like Christ. He was seen giggling to himself and avoiding eye contact on the campus (he was responding to voices in his head, i.e., auditory hallucinations). He had systematized delusions about his fellow classmates- they hated him and were out to harm him (paranoid delusions). He was guarded and suspicious- he kept to himself and had no attachments to others (further support for his paranoia). He had nihilistic delusions- false negativistic views of the world and fellow students. This rage and paranoia may lead to violent behavior that is just as likely to be directed at others as it is to be turned on the self. That is why many psychotic killers turn the guns on themselves following a mass shooting spree. There is no mystery here. As much as we can hope that pathology like schizophrenia can be spotted before it can harm the individual or other that is not always feasible. The overarching tragedy is that unlike other societies for the sake of "protecting our freedoms" mentally ill individuals have easy access to weapons that permit them to act out their delusions on a massive scale. Sincerely, Joyce E. Myers, MD Prison Staff Psychiatrist By Joyce Myers (not verified) at April 19, 2007 - 2:25pm ---- Hmmm... "Now tell me; do your anecdotes and agendas seem that important now?" It's ironic how your arrogant, didactic, self-important writing trivializes your subject matter. If anyone wonders why our school's ranking isn't as high as it should be, take a look at Billy McMorris's columns to see why. By AlbertN (not verified) at April 19, 2007 - 2:33pm ---- Why blame Charlton Heston? Yes, why blame Charlton Heston for the Virginia tragedy? One of the most respectable Americans in todays America. He did his best for the country. Serving the nation in World War II. Giving an exemple as a father and grand father. As a professional, always showing that the good should prevail on our lives. Blame him because he defends the Second Amendment? Doesn't he has the right to? Or any responsable citizen? Gun problem, is not on good people, but on bad people. This is the real problem, bad people. This people yes should never be able to get a gun. Unfortunately, it is happening all over the world. It is not only an American problem, it is a world problem. By Jaime Pimentel Oliveira (not verified) at April 21, 2007 - 10:00pm -- Original Source: Cornell Daily Sun - April 17, 2007
When massacres are normal: guns and Virginia Tech
You are contributing your stories and/or files to The April 16 Archive, which is developing a permanent digital record of the events surrounding the tragedy on the Virginia Tech campus on April 16, 2007. Your participation in this project will allow future researchers, and people such as yourself, to gain a greater understanding of these events and the responses to them.