Shooting at Va Tech

[Pooh Girl 71]

I don't even know what to say. You can't live in Virginia and not know someone who is either currently a student or an alumni of Tech.

This is just a horrible, horrible tragedy. This affects so many people I know and work with as well. It's just been such a hard day. My prayers are with all the families and friends of everyone involved.

 

[Amlee]

ok what I heard is

the gray headed guy is he president or vice-president? say they were in a meeting about the first shooting when they get a 9-11 call on the 2nd shooting.

the cop said that they had a person of interest


But I will say this, the reporters were yelling and asking repeat questions over and over, to the point I got confused and it looked like those holding the press conferance also got confused.

 

[Pooh Girl 71]

That's not what I heard, in the press conference. I thought they said they were interview witnesses about the first shooting when the second one started. ?????

I heard them specifically say they had a person of interest

 

[Amlee]

I heard them specifically say they had a person of interest

The cop did say that and then a reporter asked him something like "You do have a person of interest?" and the cop replied back "YES!"

 

[Val]

I am a university professor and a parent of a DD19 who is a freshman at a college 12 hours away from our home.

This incident has left me saddened, shaken, and mad! I had to teach my freshman class immediately after the first tower fell on 911- and faced a crying, scared and needy group of students. This afternoon was the second such incident- students were terrified and upset. It hit them a little close to home, as we are a rural state university about the same size.

I had and have had NO training on what to say or do. I have a PhD in behavioral neuroscience- but have NEVER received training from my university on what to do in case of a tornado, a fire, a student who is taken ill, or an intruder. As a faculty member, I feel woefully inadequate to deal with emergencies. I can only depend on my training as a special needs school administrator to get me through an emergency....and I know that my university is not the outlier- I know of NO university that trains their faculty for emergency situations such as this.

....I keep going over and over in my head- what would I have done to protect MY students in a situation like this? Would I have reacted quickly enough, competently enough to prevent or reduce harm to my students? If the intruder was in another room, would I know what to say or do? An incident like this is SO unlikely, but at the same time, can happen anytime anywhere. Fires are unlikely too, but we practice what to do for these (well, not at the university level!!!!).

I HAVE been the victim of a stalking student twice- and have had my life threatened before. This semester a colleague of mine and his graduate students have been threatened by a student- and the university's response is to protect the rights of the student.....but what about all the others who might be threatened by an angry student's response?

As a parent, if this occured at MY DD's school, and knowing what I know about faculty preparation and training for emergency training at the university level- I would be livid. I am not happy, based on what I am reading and hearing, about how this situation was handled. All I want to do is get in the car, drive 12 hours, and hug her tight. Instead, I am consoling and hugging other people's children because they are too far away. At least I know HOW to do that!

We need to get our heads out of the clouds and into reality. Forget political debates, discussions about gun laws, or philosophical discussions on violence. Let's provide training to university professors like we do to high school and elementary teachers. At least 33 people died today. Could training and prevention techniques have identified risk of the shooter's behavior, or reduced the death toll today?

 

[taekwondo mom]

Thank God .. We finally heard fromm a friend of ours she is home and ok. the shooting happened in her dorm an the same floor she lives in...
This is so scary ,
we are still trying to reach a few more..

 

[mirthmaiden]

This happened in my DSD's dorm - W. AJ. She is fine. She said she got up around 8am, went to get ready for class and was told she couldn't leave the building. She thought it was because of weather. She went back to bed for a short while, then heard sirens, got up, and somebody told her about the shooting (2 floors down). This was approx 9:30am. She never heard a thing until the sirens.

To the PP who talked about being angry, yes... it is frustrating. But my initial reaction is that this could happen anywhere, anytime. Unless we are prepared to live in "lock down" mode all the time, there is no way to completely 100% prevent this type of event from happening. If somebody is determined, they will find a way. The person who tried to stop the shooter - a security mechanism - was shot. I don't know. I'm sure they will look at more security, but where does it stop? I don't want to live in a police state

My prayers go out to the families of the victims. I praise God my DSD is OK.

 

[Amlee]

I agree, where there is a will there is away. Anyone who is hell bent on doing something like this, will find away.

A student just interviewed on Larry King, said that it was one of the RA's killed at the dorm.

 

[bluesaturn]

I live just a few blocks from Georgetown University. Its very somber here in town - I think kids in colleges all around the country are probably in shock.

This is very true. All day as I walked to classes I thought about those kids, how they were doing the same thing I'm doing. Just going about their daily business. Those kids were doing good, going to class, living their lives. I kept thinking, what would I do if that happened on my campus, in my building, in my classroom. My heart goes out to my friends and everyone at VA Tech.
I got to see my parents today coincidentally, and I was so glad.

 

[DisneyGirl421]

Being a college student, I was so shook up and frustrated and angry and sad all at the same time. It just boggles my mind how this could happen, and why the campus did practically nothing after the first shooting.
I know a girl there, and thankfully she is ok. Her friend was one of the injured from the class, and again, thankfully he was released from the hospital.
One of my friends here from Gettysburg knows a girl who lives in West WJ, and knew the RA really well. She said that basically her entire building has either gone home or gone to houses of people who live relatively close.

This just got me so worried and scared that this could happen at my college, especially combined with the fact that Columbine's anniversary is only four days away... I just can't imagine what it would be like to be on that campus...

My prayers go out to everyone at VA Tech and the victim's families.

 

[Planogirl]

We need to get our heads out of the clouds and into reality. Forget political debates, discussions about gun laws, or philosophical discussions on violence. Let's provide training to university professors like we do to high school and elementary teachers. At least 33 people died today. Could training and prevention techniques have identified risk of the shooter's behavior, or reduced the death toll today?

I can't imagine how sad and frustrated you must feel but I just want to say that I never would expect a teacher to protect students from other students. I mean there's only so much one teacher can do and expecting a teacher to be a bodyguard seems to be a bit much. A good teacher, a kind and understanding ear and someone to keep everyone calm if the need arises might be as far as I'd expect a teacher's role to go.

Actually, maybe we could all use some training including college students. I don't know though, it's a sad situation.

 

[poohandwendy]

I can't imagine how sad and frustrated you must feel but I just want to say that I never would expect a teacher to protect students from other students. I mean there's only so much one teacher can do and expecting a teacher to be a bodyguard seems to be a bit much. A good teacher, a kind and understanding ear and someone to keep everyone calm if the need arises might be as far as I'd expect a teacher's role to go.

Actually, maybe we could all use some training including college students. I don't know though, it's a sad situation.

I agree. As frustrating as it may be, there is no real way to train any teacher to control a total unexpected and uncontrolled dangerous situation in a classroom (whatever level of the students) To be honest, I am not sure it's a good idea to set teachers up for that sort of legal obligation either. Imagine the lawsuits if teachers were trained and paid to be pseudo-law enforcement, in addition to their other duties, and somehow someone died anyways. That is an awfully hefty responsibility to place on people who are not combat trained. (IMO)

I think the best thing that can be done is implementing campus wide...scratch that... EVERY business, school or institution should have an emergency contingency in place. There needs to be a real emergency procedure that can help save lives and be implemented immediately when danger erupts. There needs to be better ways to communicate that there is a dangerous person in the vicinity, like codes in a hospital. The common problem, in these shooting situations, seems to be that people are caught unaware and the shooting continues until after the police arrive. And of course, it takes time for the police to contain the situation. They come on to the scene and it's chaos. They are not totally familiar with the surrounding, they have no idea who is a victim and who is a shooter, they have to protect themselves and the victims. And they have to figure out a way to stop the perpetrator.

There needs to be some way to alert people once the first shot is fired. (Maybe like a universal alarm that means 'dangerous predator in the vicinity'? I dunno, something that is recognized as a threat coming from a person or persons...not a fire or natural disaster alarm) There needs to be a way to really lock down sections of campuses so the shooters cannot exit one building (or room) and enter another one to continue killing. IOW, I don't think it should be left up to training the faculty or people in charge, (especially given the fact that shooters often target the person in charge first) there really need to be changes so that EVERY person in the area is alerted that they are under attack and need to do what they can to protect themselves. Just that knowledge could have saved some lives today, possibly.

I have no idea if any of that is even feasible. It's a horrible thing, but like others have said...it seems that when someone really gets it in their mind to go on one of these rampages, they have the upper hand and the victims are defenseless.

I continue to pray for all involved today...the victims, the students, the families. What a horrible, horrible, senseless tragedy.

 

[JKanownik]

What a national tragedy. DH has been really affected by it. It is his Alma Mater. The victims and their families are in our hearts and thoughts.

 

[Green Tea]

That's not what I heard, in the press conference. I thought they said they were interview witnesses about the first shooting when the second one started. ?????

They definitely said they were talking to the suspect of interest in the first shooting when the second shooting happened. They had not called that off campus man a suspect, but a person of interest. But, he did not himself do the second rampage because they were in his dwelling interviewing him. He does not match the description of the one dead at the second scene.

 

[mirthmaiden]

My DH (Hokie alum) has been following this pretty close because my DSD is there in W. AJ dorm. He said the campus security at first thought this was a domestic situation and that is perhaps why they did not put the whole campus on lockdown immediately. They were not expecting this person to go shoot up a bunch of other people once the initial shooting was done. DH thinks the shooter may have left campus, and knowing he was already going to fry for murder anyway, went and got more ammo and came back to go out in a blaze of glory. Just a theory.

I'm sure it will take a while to put all the pieces together. I know the news media has reported that the students in W. AJ were notified right away, but according to my DSD, she was not notified and had no idea what was going on until she heard sirens around 9:30am. She lives on the 6th floor, so maybe they did notify people on other floors, but she wasn't. I have a real problem with that

 

[Mamu]

These things seem to be happening more and more. Innocent people are becoming the victim of wacko's with access to guns that should be banned.

I know there are many who will disagree with me on gun control. I think it's time we seriously look at the gun control issues.

It's very sad that your children are not safe at any school or college. My heart goes out to the families of the victims in this tragedy. How sad that 32 young promising adults lives have been taken away because guns have become so easy to obtain. In this case and so many like it, a gun that can kill so many in a matter of minutes.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the families who have lost loved ones and the students who's lives will never be the same again.

 

[DawnCt1]

These things seem to be happening more and more. Innocent people are becoming the victim of wacko's with access to guns that should be banned.

I know there are many who will disagree with me on gun control. I think it's time we seriously look at the gun control issues.

It's very sad that your children are not safe at any school or college. My heart goes out to the families of the victims in this tragedy. How sad that 32 young promising adults lives have been taken away because guns have become so easy to obtain. In this case and so many like it, a gun that can kill so many in a matter of minutes.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the families who have lost loved ones and the students who's lives will never be the same again.

In this case, did anyone know that he was a wacko before he went on this rampage. If bad guys want guns, they are readily available. On the other hand, did I hear that the campus police do not even bear arms here? Consider the case that occurred a few years ago at Appalachia School of Law.
Perhaps the most significant was the Jan. 16, 2002 shooting spree at the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, VA. A Nigerian student named Peter Odighizuwa went on a rampage, gunning down six people, three of them fatally, before other students stopped him. The media appears to have deliberately omitted the fact that two of those students, Mikael Gross and Tracy Bridges, were armed.

Teenage gunman Luke Woodham, who perpetrated the 1997 school shooting at a high school in Pearl, MS, was also brought to an abrupt halt at gunpoint.

This time, assistant principal Joel Myrick, retrieved a .45-caliber handgun from his car, parked off campus, and held the youth at gunpoint until police arrived. Again, the major media ignored Myrick’s heroism with a gun.

Serious mistakes were made starting at 7:15 am. If we are hearing about them now, those mistakes are going to have repercussions for a long time.

 

[Mackey Mouse]

I have not read this whole thread, just happened on it this am. I am so upset on so many levels but first as a Mom feeling for those parents who have lost their child at this horrific massacre. I am not laying blame anywhere as I feel that many schools may be unprepared for an incident of this magnitude...so sad. I also think we may need to see what happens these next days as the story unfolds.

Last night I layed in bed and thought, when I could not close my eyes thinking about this.. what next? I then thought, what if I am alone and a single woman, living my life alone in today's world. The thought came to me maybe I would need to buy a gun, learn to use it and just have it somewhere hidden just in case. I have never thought like this before.....but am thinking it now. It is a scary world out there.

 

[meandtheguys2]

Shouting for joy! We finally heard from our friend's son, and engineer student! They had been off campus for the last couple of days, and had not a clue.

 

[DawnCt1]

I have not read this whole thread, just happened on it this am. I am so upset on so many levels but first as a Mom feeling for those parents who have lost their child at this horrific massacre. I am not laying blame anywhere as I feel that many schools may be unprepared for an incident of this magnitude...so sad. I also think we may need to see what happens these next days as the story unfolds.

Last night I layed in bed and thought, when I could not close my eyes thinking about this.. what next? I then thought, what if I am alone and a single woman, living my life alone in today's world. The thought came to me maybe I would need to buy a gun, learn to use it and just have it somewhere hidden just in case. I have never thought like this before.....but am thinking it now. It is a scary world out there.

I felt that way after the lawlessness that the media portrayed after Katrina.