Yesterday, the courts determined that Virginia Tech
officials did not act fast enough or provide enough information on April 16, 2007
to prevent the deaths of 33 people (the entire article can be viewed here). Next
month will commemorate the fifth anniversary of the largest massacre on a
college campus in our nation’s history, and this has other colleges wondering
how this will affect their emergency response.
I have mixed feelings about the ruling. It is easy to ‘Monday
morning quarterback’ any situation and criticize how poorly it was handled once
you are removed from the immediate stress of the moment. I have confronted
enough incidents, granted none as severe as Virginia Tech, to know that you do
what you think is needed as it happens and then debrief what could be done
differently after the crisis is resolved. No matter how much training responders
have, nothing compares to the actual incident; sometimes things go wrong.
Unfortunately, when things went wrong the morning of April 16, people died.
A year ago, when my institution had an alleged gunman on
our campus, the college immediately sent out email and text messages alerting
everyone to stay away from our academic quad. Within a few hours, the video
that prompted the lock-down was released to the media and questioned whether
there was even a gun to begin with—the object under the person’s arm looked more
like a lacrosse stick. However, university officials, aware of what can occur
if timely notifications are not sent, erred on the side of caution. However, to
this day, people still argue the alert was sent prematurely. Damned if you do,
damned if you don’t.
Jury verdict or not, nothing will change the events of
April 16 or the incredible sadness I feel for the Virginia Tech community. I
was relatively new to Residential Life when the world learned of this tragedy,
and the terror I felt at the prospect of confronting and surviving this type of
violence was very real for the first few years. Sadly, for our generation,
Virginia Tech will be synonymous with mass destruction and loss of life, just
like Oklahoma City and Columbine. My thoughts and sympathies go out to all the
families who lost someone on that fateful day. Hopefully, this verdict will
ensure this never happens again.
(PS: After
writing this post, I found this article about Rochester Institute for
Technology's lock-down after a student was seen carrying what appeared to be a
rifle. In the end, police discovered it was the handle of an umbrella. Although
students and staff have already created t-shirts and Facebook groups teasing how seriously it was taken, university officials responded in a way that is now expected of college campuses.)
As the cousin of a VT student who was present at the first VT shooting and very well could have been on campus for the second, this story always hits very, very close to home. (It's a source of great turmoil for me, as a student, an RA, a cousin, and someone who has recently sought professional counseling help for this and other reasons.)
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, it's often incidents such as this that lead campuses to increase security measures, whatever they may have decided to enact. It sickens me that the students and staff at RIT have made a mockery of what could have been an incredibly dangerous situation.
Thank you very much for sharing on my blog. I agree that making fun of something that could have turned tragic is wrong. I hope that VT, the surrounding community, students, families, and especially you, find peace. I also wish you all the best and my thoughts go out to you!
ReplyDeleteI was a student at Virginia Tech and member of the Res Life staff at the time of the shooting. I think you've helped me realize why I have been always proud of the way we responded to the shooting. Because I, like you, have responded to so many incidents and we know that there is always area for improvement and we work with the information we have at the time. I truly believe that Steger and VTPD made the best decisions they could based on the information we had.
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