<p>sorry, i misunderstood the statement of the police officer. it’s always easy to second guess–i just wonder if any college or university anywhere in the country has a way to lock down their facilities in a few minutes…</p>
<p>From The Washington Post:
"The unidentified shooter was among the dead. Law enforcement authorities, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the shooter used two 9mm pistols. They also said that the shooter was not carrying identification and his head wounds were so severe that authorities could not immediately identify him.</p>
<p>The shootings, which included both students and staff members, took place at West Ambler Johnston, a dormitory, and Norris Hall, which houses the College of Engineering.</p>
<p>Charles Steger, president of the university, said at a news conference late today that 31 people, including the gunman were killed at Norris Hall and two others died at the dorm. He said there was no connection between the two shootings, however, law enforcement sources told The Washington Post that a single shooter was responsible for both incidents. He said a list of the dead was not likely to be released until tomorrow."</p>
<p>911 call 7:15 - 14,000 commuters- 9.000 resident students
dorm incident happened-
VA Tech claim they believed it was localized situation,
closed dorm where two were killed. </p>
<p>and, that’s it.</p>
<p>M,m,m,m,m,m, no email to students until 9:something…???</p>
<p>Just talked with son again. He said his school is very good about keeping students abreast of safety issues (of course never had anything of this magnitude or seriousness).</p>
<p>He said that school has students’ cell phone numbers and can send out text messages for emergencies. Also any safety issue on campus is emailed to all students. For example, he got an email last night that a girl was attacked (mugged) in a parking lot–gave time, location, description of attacker and urged caution and to call if any suspicious persons noticed.</p>
<p>I like the cell phone system–I don’t know a student who isn’t constantly attached to their phone–emails they may not check frequently.</p>
<p>My son might be in the minority, but he is not attached to his cell phone, nor does he have text messaging on his cell. I IM’d with him earlier today and asked him if his school has a method to notify students if something like this were to happen. Other than email to everyone, he wasn’t aware of any electronic means.</p>
<p>I work at a university with 10,000 undergrads and believe our only methods to communicate would be via email (which is done with faculty/staff) and through Blackboard for the students. This is used on a regular basis (as it was today at 10 a.m. when we called curtailed operations due to flooding on campus).</p>
<p>I like the phone system also. Our town uses such a system. For example, I received a call last night or Saturday night informing me that the Boston Marathon would be starting a few hours earlier and that a major road in town would be shut down for a number of hours today. I would think that when you register for classes, you could also give the administration a phone number so you could be notified in event of emergencies. I am a very loyal Hokie and I hate to second guess before all the information is released, but that two hour gap bothers me. If the concern was off campus people coming to class, why weren’t police officers at the major roads or parking lots turning students away? I am afraid VT’s preparedness looks a little weak at this point in time. I hope I am wrong. Most importantly though, my prayers are with all the families affected by this tragedy.</p>
<p>Could the shooter have left a gun at the scene of the initial 2 victims murder? If so, administrators and police may have understandably concluded those deaths were murder-suicide. I know it can take weeks to do the ballistics and other research to definitely say that an unwitnessed crime was murder-suicide.</p>
<p>Northstarmom,
“Could the shooter have left a gun at the scene of the initial 2 victims murder? If so, administrators and police may have understandably concluded those deaths were murder-suicide.”</p>
<p>– interesting idea, NSmom – it would explain why there was no school-wide lockdown.</p>
<p>During the press conference they stated that they thought the shooter at the first location had left the campus and was possibly headed out of state.</p>
<p>I heard alot of questions about the 2 hours between shootings and how people were notified of the first event at the PC but in all honesty I can’t see how you can get that information to everyone quickly. I can’t always reach my own D even though she has a cell phone, email, etc. I just hope this doesn’t turn into a huge blame-game. Nobody can ever be fully prepared for something like this. And the guy could just as easily walked into a nearby office building and start shooting even if the campus WAS shut down ASAP. We can’t know what a crazy person is going to do.</p>
<p>I see a scene on Jon Stewart-Virginia Tech Pres. quoted as saying we had RA’s going knocking on doors-
M,m,m,m, ok, you can do that,but wouldn’t email/ text messages be something to do ASAP- you know something like “there is a serious incident under investigation BE CAREFUL!” Hit the SeND button on that.</p>
<p>Virginia Tech Pres- indicated that sending 36,000 emails was a big deal- ok tech folk out there- I hope this is not true- Ihope a TECH school is more than capable of notifying staff and students via TECHNOLOGY!?</p>
<p>^^ and being that many students do tend to sleep in - email, etc… would be useless to many.</p>
<p>I understood that they did have emergency notification and procedures in place and were mindful of the fact that an armed gunman was not accounted for. But, they also had over 11,000 students making their way on to campus from offcampus housing and the only practical thing to do seemed to be to get them into their classrooms and go to lockdown. That makes sense to me. However, I am confused as to whether they actually required students to remain in their classrooms at any point. Seems to be conflicting stories on that.</p>
<p>It’s just not a situation you can win imho. If this gunman was carrying at least two weapons and wearing a vest with extra ammo, he intended to hurt a lot of people. Whether he forced his way into a classroom, dorm room or attacked a group of students in the open, he did not intend to be stopped.</p>
<p>btw…ldgirl’s friend returned from VT last night thank goodness. Both of her friends are safe but understandably upset.</p>
<p>just saying jeepmom - use all MEANS to communicate- knock on doors-but hit the send button-</p>
<p>On subject of notification–my daughter’s high school of 4500+ students has a system that notifies all home phone numbers and cell phone numbers that you list. </p>
<p>They test it once a year, pre-recorded message. It has been used 2x, once for a minor fire before school and for a snow closing.</p>
<p>My cell phone and home phone rang within seconds of each other</p>
<p>The idea that somehow an “appropriate” response to the initial dormitory incident should reasonably have prevented the massacre in the engineering building seems far-fetched to me. Which universities have policies designed for situations in which a gunman possibly strikes and then leaves the scene? Even if the university had time to completely analyze the dorm crime scene and decide what best to do, what should they have reported in an e-mail? Should they have instructed all Virginia Tech students to remain in their dorm rooms? What about students who had already left their dorm rooms and were on their way to class? Should they have been locked out of the dorms? Should Virginia Tech have an emergency plan that includes immediately bringing in enough manpower to have armed police officers stationed at every entrance and every exit of every building on campus? This was a horrible tragedy, but it was unfortunately unavoidable. In hindsight, every one of the 9/11 airplane crashes could easily have been prevented if only people knew then what we know now. This killer apparently had an “effective” plan of chaining/locking all of the doors in the engineering bullding from the inside. Perhaps colleges will in the future implement rapid-response emergency plans, but in my opinion this horrific incident is singularly unique and could not have been easily predicted. Two hours or so is NOT a long time to investigate a situation, and apparently the dorm lockdown prevented further injuries and fatalities there. Faculty and staff at Virginia Tech must feel bad enough that such an incident occurred. Criticism or calling for heads to roll because of some alleged incompetence or delayed response is unsympathetic and totally unrealistic.</p>
<p>WOW let me just say that this is incredibly sad and heartbreaking. Especially for this sort of thing to happen at a university where kids are there to learn because they are passionate about something, and for someone to invade their place with a gun and killing 30 or so people? That is just not acceptable. I feel so bad families and friends of those who died. :(</p>
<p>Sad to say that this isn’t a first for college campuses. Anyone else remember the shooting rampage some guy did in the Cal State Fullerton library back in the mid-70s? I do. Nine were shot; seven died:</p>
<p><a href=“http://hearstfdn.org/hearst_journalism/competitions.php?type=Writing&year=2007&id=1[/url]”>http://hearstfdn.org/hearst_journalism/competitions.php?type=Writing&year=2007&id=1</a></p>
<p>As I recall there were one or two terrorized students that they found crouched in hiding in library something like one or two DAYS after the shooting was over. They had fled the shooting scene in terror and hid among the stacks but never heard the all clear and were too frightened to come out. They were almost catatonic with fear when they were found.</p>
<p>After watching the evening national news - where 2 survivors and the college president were interviewed - I can understand a bit more the how/what and why’s that happened today - this could not have predicted - that is the tragedy in all of this.</p>
<p>It is so weird to see how the different posts started coming in at like 10 am. one casualty…etc. God bless them all!</p>