Va. Tech Victims' Kin Feel "Ostracized"

[RamboLiberal]

Source: CBS News/AP

Relatives of the Virginia Tech shooting victims demanded representation Monday on a gubernatorial panel studying the killings, saying in a letter that they feel "ostracized."

They also questioned the status of a memorial fund that has generated millions of dollars to honor the 32 victims of the student gunman.

"We are angry about being ostracized from a government-chartered panel investigating a government-sponsored university, and about how the university has used the names and images of our loved ones to raise millions of dollars without any consultation," the families said in a statement presented to the review board Monday during its third public meeting.

The statement was written on behalf of 13 families, said Holly Sherman, the mother of slain student Leslie Sherman.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's spokesman said the governor wanted "specialized expertise" when he named the eight-member panel, which includes former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, psychiatrists, educational specialists and former law enforcement officials. The panel was charged to review the tragedy, the circumstances that led to it and the response.


Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/06/11/virginiatechshooting/main2916150.shtml

[bluerum]

1. Sorry folks - its all about politics - not your grief. eom

[VTMechEngr]

2. Disagree.

The panel should be impartial and not emotionally linked to the shootings. The families will not have any expert opinions to add to the investigation of how the killer got by the mental health provisions of Virginia Law.

It is best to let a third party do the investigation. Do you think you could do a neutral investigation if your child was killed?

[LostInAnomie]

3. That's what I thought when I saw the report on MSNBC

The panel is supposed to do an impartial, objective investigation. It should include experts, not people with a incredible emotional investment in the findings. The victims' families would serve no purpose in investigating the events, the circumstances that led to it, or the response.

[bluerum]

4. Well it sure as hell is about adminstrative posturing and maneuvering.

IMO the school botched up their chance at evacuating the campus and calling emergency officials. Now they are trying to politically and diplomatically share responsibility with the states ineffective gun control efforts.

The families are probably watching all this and getting disgusted with it. I don't think they want to run the proceedings, but I am sure that they want something positive results, not another gun control whitewash.

[VTMechEngr]

5. Evacuate campus. Yeah right....

Ever notice that Alumni aren't casting blame? The cops thought it was a domestic incident, and that the suspect was not on campus. No one could have been foreseen what was to come. Blacksburg isn't some dangerous ghetto city, it's an Appalachian town.

Then the 20/20 hindsight people come along, and say they should have closed campus, or evacuated campus, etc. Yeah right.

Over 2600 acres of land, an airport, more than 100 campus buildings, an on-campus population of 9000, ~30,000 total students not including faculty, a border that is surrounded openly on two sides by the town of Blacksburg, Va (pop 36,000) And you think they can evacuate? To where? Its fucking Nowhere, Appalachia! It's located 40 miles south of the nearest city.

It would take a small army to close campus. And you'd have to close the town as well. And this over a domestic incident? Do you realize how nutty that sounds? Virginia Tech is the safest place I have ever lived, and it still is. Once that dip shit put a bullet through his brain, Tech went right back to being the safest place I have ever lived.

If I had the choice, I'd gladly live there again.

[ContraBass Black]

6. The students still here aren't casting that blame either.

It comes from those who haven't been here and seen the security situation firsthand.

[bluerum]

8. Well, maybe call the authorities instead of sitting there like a bunch of

dumb bells. Sitting around waiting to see what happens next - now that sound nutty.

Some administrator tells you that making an effort at evacuating the campus is "too hard", so some of you are just going to have to have bear the brunt of inaction.

And you believe them.

Stay in school.

[VTMechEngr]

9. RE: Stay in school

Look up the meaning of Alumnus.

As for the rest, its obvious you don't know what your talking about.

I didn't have some administrator tell me evacuating is "too hard", I know because I went there.

And call the authorities? The Virginia Tech Police Department and Blacksburg PD are the Authorities bud.

Like I pointed out - You don't know what the environment is like, but don't have the decency to avoid commenting on topics you know nothing about.

[hang a left]

11. I don't have to live or attend school there to know that this

situation was handled poorly.

Evacuation was not the only way to deal with the situation. And concluding that it was a domestic incident was the first mistake they made. Clearly the gentleman had a record with this student and she was certainly NOT his girlfriend. Also there had to be other students in that housing complex, not every kid would have been in class. Who were they interviewing?? They fucked up. Period. I don't care if there was not ever even a shoplifting incident in that town. There was something very wrong that morning.

[VTMechEngr]

22. Some of your assumptions are invalid.

1. The shooting occurred in an elevator recess in West AJ which cannot be seen from others rooms. (I know this because I've been there, hundreds of times). That destroys your witnesses assumption.

2. The original suspect was someone who was involved at one time with the women, and the RA was taken to be a victim who had tried to intervene in the conflict. Its likely the RA heard something and went to investigate.


Sorry, but it isn't "Period". No one on this board can provide a realistic alternative scenario, and instead just lashes out from ignorance.

[bluerum]

20. A college dorm. A major university. Like all the others around the country.

I don't care if you helped chain the doors and handed ammo to the shooter. The administration fucked up.

The police could have covered campus after the first shooting. Classes could have been quietly suspended. Students could have been instructed to leave campus.

Would that have saved lives? Don't know. But if I get a call that someone has been shot in a dorm, I do SOMETHING - FAST.

That much I know.

[VTMechEngr]

21. In other words, you don't know what your talking about...

Each campus is unique.

Police isolated the building and an investigation was in full swing. That is doing something.

As for the rest - See Title.

[LostinVA]

13. The authorities WERE doing something

And, you are wrong concerning the logistics. It wouldn't have nattered anyway -- the killer was a student in a dorm. The killings still would have happened, just probably more victims and different ones.

[LostinVA]

12. You got it -- I posted this over and over here after the shooting

[Irreverend IX]

7. Another problem...

Is that the school didn't expel Cho and even let him stay in the dorms despite his history of arson, stalking and other anti-social behavior. It was the same when I was in college; the school was so fixated on avoiding bad PR that they weren't willing to take action against people who were clearly a danger to others.

I had friends who worked in the dorms who told me about a schizophrenic resident who would go off his meds, run around the halls naked and attack other residents but wasn't evicted because the school didn't want any trouble from his parents. Some people just aren't cut out for higher education, and if they present a danger to other students they need to be tossed out at the first sign of trouble.

[Coventina]

10. But see, the school would get sued for discrimination against

someone with disabilities.

Believe me, parents college-age students are very eager to sue the schools that their little darlings attend.

[hang a left]

14. So running around naked and attacking people is a disability??

I guess I'll go clock my neighbor and lawyer up. She has been getting on my nerves for years.

[Coventina]

15. According to some parents, yes.

I've worked in higher education for 7 years now, and already I've seen all kinds of bizarre lawsuits and threats from parents. Schools have to be very, very careful.

[hang a left]

16. Perhaps.

I'd like to see that fly in a court of law. Even under the mess our judicial system is in, seems to me this one is a no-brainer.

Yeah yeah, I know the cost of litigation and all that. Surely the schools, especially the private ones have plenty of resources. Lawyers love to set precedents.

[Coventina]

17. Mental illness is a disability. We've been told by our lawyers

that "reasonable accommodation" has to be made to students with disabilities.

Now, where that crosses the line with the rights of OTHER students' health, safety and learning has not yet been determined. So far, all legal decisions have been that we have to accommodate, no matter what the disability.

Believe me, we want this clarified!!

[hang a left]

18. Yes, it is a disability I agree.

However running around naked and attacking people is not.

[RobinA]

19. I Will Say

that back in the '70's when we had an arsonist running around our dorm, he WAS expelled. Creepy guy.