Please Pray for VT

[JGood]

OK, well next time a shooting happens, get the area cleaned up and move on. There's probably a 95% chance that there was only one person, and nobody else will be a threat. That 5% chance isn't worth the police locking down the area and related areas in case it is some sort of terroristic or planned team attack that may kill others. It's only peoples lives, cops aren't in place to protect them or anything.

I know it's not a terrorist attack, and the chance of a related incident is practically zero, but to question why the police are still making a presence and still locking places down, as if its useless, is outrageous. That of course is just my young opinion... so to each his own.

[AdironRider]

The fact of the matter is that after the initial shooting the school did absolutely nothing to prevent any further attack. An email over 2 HOURS later, right as the second attack happened? And what was their excuse? Commuting students.... The fact that they have 26,000 students and 100 buildings? Come on, you get on the fucking phone, lock every building, and do every possible thing you can do to save life until your sure the threat is over. You dont cower after the fact and try and use some excuse of the size of the school as cover. VT fucked up hard and as a result turned a 2 person shooting into a massacre.

This brings up my personal biggest gripe with the American college system. In my time in college, it has become quite clear the extent administrations will go to prevent any bad news about a school getting out and in turn "hurting" the bottom line ... aka tuition dollars and charitable giving. For example, there are 2 known RAPISTS on my campus. Both commited multiple assaults, and both saw no legal ramifications. 1 was never even suspended from school, the other was only suspended for a semester. Now I know this is not the equivalent of the VT incident, but its a perfect example of how a college is more willing to keep a full paying student on campus as opposed to protecting the safety of the rest of the student body.

[Charlie]

The fact of the matter is that after the initial shooting the school did absolutely nothing to prevent any further attack. An email over 2 HOURS later, right as the second attack happened? And what was their excuse? Commuting students.... The fact that they have 26,000 students and 100 buildings? Come on, you get on the fucking phone, lock every building, and do every possible thing you can do to save life until your sure the threat is over. You dont cower after the fact and try and use some excuse of the size of the school as cover. VT fucked up hard and as a result turned a 2 person shooting into a massacre.

Yea, this is what is really irking me here. Cops have gone on record stating that they new the initial shooting was *not* a murder-suicide, meaning they had a double murderer on the loose, and weren't locking down the area. I'm having a hard time trying to figure that out.

Granted, it's a college town, and my College experiences at OSU were probably a little different, as Columbus is more than just a "college town", and OSU isn't in the nicest section of the city, so you tend to see a larger police presense in general. Still, for there to be barely any apparent police action for nearly 2 hours after the fact just seems odd. OSU gets "locked down" or the area cordoned off fairly frequently when you see violence/shootings.

-Charlie

[RobertK]

I think the major reason that VT did not lock down the school was because the police had told the administration that the first 2 murders were the result of a domestic dispute and the prep fled the building afterwards.

The administration is not going to lock down an entire campus over what was, at the time, perceived to be a domestic dispute because of 2 reasons:

1. It would have caused unnecessary chaos across the campus.
2. It would attracted too much negative media attention. (as mentioned before.)

Another reason to contributed to the perception that the first 2 shooting victims were purely domestic was due to the fact that the guy did not go on a shooting spree right after killing his ex-g/f and her possible new b/f. Instead he carried through with his plan almost 2 hours later. If had immediately started capping people in the dorm and running across campus shooting people I guarantee there would have been a lock down much sooner.

The biggest problem was that the police had little time to identify the asian kid. Since so many asians are enrolled in much of the engineering Masters and PhD programs it's even harder to profile.

One thing is for sure.. the guy had a plan.

[AdironRider]

2. It would attracted too much negative media attention.

This is the point that has me livid. Who the fuck cares if your school is going to get negative media attention. 30 lives could have been saved, and they still got the negative media attention. Way to go VT!

[RobertK]

This is the point that has me livid. Who the fuck cares if your school is going to get negative media attention. 30 lives could have been saved, and they still got the negative media attention. Way to go VT!

The biggest problem is that pretty much any other institution of higher education would have reacted in the same way. Not just VT.

Also, the ability to lock down an entire campus is nearly impossible. You couldn't hire enough campus cops. The sad part is that even under a lock down the student would have easily gained access to the same building and carried through with his plan.

If you said "An Asian guy with a gun is going around shooting people" on any major campus everyone would be in mass chaos since there are so many Asian students attending these major universities.

Asians probably make up 65% of the students enrolled in the masters program of the robotics lab I work in.

[garrett]

i have friends at tech. thank god none of them were hurt. i know im going to be that much more vigilant here at vcu.

[Quik325ix]

Damn you guys. Dont you think that there is a time and a place to squabble. I love how you guys can just destroy a thread meant to try to offer support to those affected by the incident by turning it into an arguement. You all should be ashamed. you know there are only four posts here that dont have some type of criticism to make? Why cant you just understand that all this bitching never makes anything better and never helps people feel better? Fuck...

[mtechnik]

Been following this event since it first appeared in the media. Sad event.

RIP all.

[Jscotty]

Damn you guys. Dont you think that there is a time and a place to squabble. I love how you guys can just destroy a thread meant to try to offer support to those affected by the incident by turning it into an arguement. You all should be ashamed. you know there are only four posts here that dont have some type of criticism to make? Why cant you just understand that all this bitching never makes anything better and never helps people feel better? Fuck...

Well I must admit, I feel MUCH better after being able to vent my concerns and hearing other people vent, and rant, and gripe. This in and of itself indicates that we have been keeping these people in our thoughts (as suggested by the first post) and its better that we share what we think and feel about it in lieu of just saying, "Ok, I will pray for them" and never give it another thought again.

[Quik325ix]

no but that certianly would be more appropriate than carrying on some bitch fest just casue you get a bug up your ass. Its a sense of propriety. Start another thread if you wanna bitch. This one is for support.

[AdironRider]

Just saying you feel bad doesn't help either.

To clarify Im not suggesting that VT couldve put the entire campus on lockdown, but they damn well could have tried. And noones suggesting that they just let out some ambiguous email saying "hey some asian is crazy and might shoot you, watch out!". There should be a plan of action. Cops knew there was a murderer on the loose, and had already victimized two students. The first thing they should have done is have security (regardless of how many there are, it doesnt take two hours to lock the doors on campus), faculty, administration, etc, drop what theyre doing and get shit taken care of. Not just assume it was a domestic dispute and call it a day.

[Quik325ix]

Garett..glad your friends are alright. and Fife...opinon duely noted and your candor is also appreciated.

[RobertK]

Just saying you feel bad doesn't help either.

To clarify Im not suggesting that VT couldve put the entire campus on lockdown, but they damn well could have tried. And noones suggesting that they just let out some ambiguous email saying "hey some asian is crazy and might shoot you, watch out!". There should be a plan of action. Cops knew there was a murderer on the loose, and had already victimized two students. The first thing they should have done is have security (regardless of how many there are, it doesnt take two hours to lock the doors on campus), faculty, administration, etc, drop what theyre doing and get shit taken care of. Not just assume it was a domestic dispute and call it a day.

I don't know how big the VT campus is but considering that UT does not have a ton of campus cops and even if they did locking down every door to every campus building within 2 hours with a reasonable number of on duty officers would have been damn near impossible.

I know the one building I work in has 5 main entrances alone and located on multiple floors.

I do agree that the university should have done a lot more than just issue an email. Having the campus police inform as many people as they could would have actually been much more effective.

[AdironRider]

Just because you know you cant completely lock down the campus doesn't mean you don't make an attempt, or at least some form of prevention. They easily couldve gotten to the primary student activity buildings first, then proceed to administration, facilities, athletic complexes, etc. RA's can spread the word, faculty can take action. Its not just the job of campus safety, the school as whole needed to do more. This is my point, not some hope that nobody could've died.