The
news that "some [Virginia Tech] officials called their own family members about the initial shootings in a dorm before an all-campus warning was issued" has prompted strong responses. This includes Governor Kaine, who calls the findings in a revised state report "inexcusable." It also includes
Chap Petersen, who writes that "the University's decision to wait over two hours to alert the students of a campus shooting is inexcusable." Chap continues:
What struck me - in reviewing [Colonel] Massengill's report -- was that Blacksburg public schools were "locked down" that morning of April 16, 2007 due to the shooting, yet the Tech administration blithely continued forward with classes.
This situation is not going to resolve until someone at Tech accepts responsibility. No one has been held accountable.
This is unacceptable; it's time for somebody to be held accountable for the fact that immediate notification of the threat posed by a murderer on the lose was not provided to Virginia Tech students, staff, etc. on that horrible day in April 2007. If it had been - and
also if Cho's "long list of frightening writings and aberrant behaviors" had been looked into and dealt with aggressively - perhaps this wouldn't have been the "deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history?"
