ROBOTCRANKIT

As I said earlier, when I first heard the news this afternoon, I was shocked, horrified, and saddened that such a thing happened.

My initial reactions still hold true, except after hearing more reports about the shooting, I am absolutely furious with the way the situation was initially handled by Virginia Tech safety officials (whether it be the school administrators, police officers, whoever). Someone was SHOT AND KILLED at 7AM in the dormitories and they didn't have the sense to cancel classes or warn students? The majority of kids still went to class, not even knowing what happened! Email bulletins and emergency messages weren't even dispatched until the second round of shootings after 30 people were killed in the second round of shooting.

The police and school officials said that they let students continue to class because they believed it was an isolated incident (since the shooter just killed his girlfriend), their excuse for not warning people being that thousands of students living off campus were already in transit on their way to school.

Personally, I think this is absolute horse ____. They should have closed down the school, turned people trying to enter campus away at the parking lot entrances, and barred people from going into classrooms and they KNOW IT, they are just trying to cover their asses. The irresponsibility displayed by these people who are supposed to keep their students safe just makes me absolutely furious.

My heart really goes out to the family and friends of all of the victims, deceased or not. I don't know what I would do if I were the parent of someone who died in the second shooting, knowing that the school and authorities could have done more to prevent such a horrific massacre of lives to take place.

Big_Bird

sad sad day, i first heard it when i went to eat breakfast, and around 8am, news said 2 dead in VT shooting, came back about an hour or so later, it was u to 28 dead came back around 4pm, 32 dead. It is an all to real ocurrance in this day and age. You would really be surprised at ow many people are really shot and killed on college campuses, but most schools cover it up. at any one point and time, there is almost always someone on a college campus with a gun, that should not have a gun.
My heart goes out to all the families because this was just sick and twisted thing to happen.

HeathenBrewing

Yes, that is VERY odd for the school (possibly) trying to prevent any panic by NOT mentioning the first shooting.

Details are of course limited at this time, but I am REALLY curious as to the schools explaination of why they decided aganist the cancel of classes.

HeathenBrewing

Gunman named:

.....23-year-old from South Korea, who was a senior, and English major, at the school......

http://www.salem-news.com/articles/a...mes_041707.php

I felt no need to copy the name. If you want it, check the link.

Frosty355

Is a person dead in the dormitories (self inflected or otherwise) so common that they felt there was no need to close the school? I didn't go to a collage with dorms so I don't know. However I do recall hearing "stories" about stuff like that happening. I just don't know if it's common enough to not require a school closure.

I guess I'm just trying to understand the schools thinking.

scionofPCFL

It's not that it's common, but at the same time there is a logisticaly reality in simply shutting the school down in a timely manner. Vtech is an open, sprawling campus with 26k students, how do you do it?

Unless you have a system in place and you rehearse and drill for such a thing, there isn't much you can do. They did get in touch with the RA's to lock the dorms down, but how do you get the word out to folks already en route for their 8 or 9 o'clock class that live off campus?

At Texas there are guard shacks at certain points to restrict access for vehicles, but there wasn't much for foot traffic, and I'd imagine that Vtech was similar.

Unless you're USC, with a walled campus (it's walled and gated because it's in the middle of the hood BTW), it's quite difficult.

etli

I feel kind of sorry for the VA tech president and the police chief. I know they probably bungled this badly and cost a lot of people their lives but hindsight is always 20/20. Usually, when a murder happens, the shooter then doesn't go off and kill a whole bunch of other people, in a different location, and totally unrelated to where the 1st shooting was. Granted a generic criminal who commits murder is still armed and dangerous, but he's not spraying bullet at some other location at other people (usually). Can anyone really forsee stuff like this from happening? Is it even possible for it to be prevented (short of having a police state)?

Anyone know if the shooter was mentally unstable? (well obviously I guess he was but I mean like, a pre-existing diagnosis or some other psychiatric evaluation or indicator)

ih8civx

lets put money on it... 8 months till the movie comes out...

tC4italy

That's the tackiest thing that could be done

seattledave

how about going to walmart to buy Virginia Tech clothing, to "support the victims" and their families?

huge sellouts of virginia tech gear everywhere it's sold.

chrischoi

iTrader: (2)

Oh great. The Korean bashing will be here any minute now.

guitarguru44

I think I know some of the reason as to why this guy shot those other thirty people...

I mean he killed his girlfriend over an argument and then the RA came to check out what the problem saw him with the gun and his dead girlfriend so he obviously had to pop him...

Then he was like **** I'm going to jail for life or getting the death penalty. There's no escape. So he figured he might as well go out with a bang, go down in history and have his name be known by the whole country. So he went to a lecture hall and popped off until either someone took his gun away and killed him or until he knew he was surrounded by police and figured this is it let me kill myself before they take me captive...

I dont think he planned any of it because there's no note, there's no nothing. He probably didnt mean to kill his girl, and the rest just kinda happened...

seattledave

i don't know, who argues with a gun in their hand?

tC4italy

I find that tacky too

Hat_Trick_Hokie

iTrader: (1)

It would be very hard to close the whole campus down. And even harder to contact all the students who live off campus (most of us) so that we would not show up for class. I do not really know all of the information that the president and police cheif were given, but I do not blame them for what happened. Just this psychotic lunatic.

The town population is under 40,000, school populatuion is something like 26,000. And Blacksburg is widely regarded as the safest town in the US. The city and students are just not used to something like this.

I applaud the response of the poilce and EMT to the situation. The police force is not close to what the pictures are showing. The students and I have no idea where they came from (Roanoke maybe?). But wherever they came from I am sure the EMT saved numberous lives by responding so quickly.

Big_Bird

with 100 building and thousands of kids, i do not think they did anything wrong. they thought it was an isolated incident that did not need to disrupt the flow of the campus. No one had anyway of knowing what the kid would do next, and i serverely doubt anyone would have figured which building he would walk into next, he went clear across the campus and offed those other kids, it wasnt like he walked next door.
i think they did nothign wrong, it's unfortunate, but there is nothing anyone can do now

seattledave

after the first shooting, they had a suspect in custody. turns out it was the wrong suspect.

guitarguru44

lots of peopple actually.. its used as a threat to get what you want...

of course what I said is all just my thoughts. Not much has been released and we'll have to see what becomes of all this...

oh and as for the school I think they acted correctly... I think the only one to really blame here was the shooter..

Big_Bird

http://www.cnn.com/video/player/play...e.witness.wdbj

gcxandy

"The suspected gunman was identified Tuesday as an English major whose creative writing was so disturbing that he was referred to the school's counseling service.

News reports also said that 23-year-old Cho Seung-Hui may have been taking medication for depression, that he was becoming increasingly violent and erratic, and that he left a note in his dorm in which he railed against "rich kids," "debauchery" and "deceitful charlatans" on campus."

From Wnbc