<p>msnbc just reported 31 people have been killed. I’m so sad. I can’t even think how the school is going to get through this.</p>
<p>Looks like it’ll have a higher toll than the Luby’s shooting…</p>
<p>I don’t understand how the first shooting was in a dorm at around 7 AM, and then the major shooting was about three hours later in a classroom building. Why wouldn’t they get the whole campus on lockdown after the first shooting? I’m not being critical of the campus, just wondering why these measures aren’t in place as they are in high schools. Maybe it’s too difficult on a large campus, but there should be a way to alert everyone and lock all buildings.</p>
<p>CNN - This is the deadliest shooting incident in the history of the United States.</p>
<p>What a horrible day.</p>
<p>The AOL feed is also saying 31 confirmed dead. There are several interviews with students, who said their resident associates did put them on lockdown. Not sure how much time elapsed before the shootings in the Engineering Bldg, but perhaps if they thought the shooter was still in one of the dorms, they might not have been able to address the locking down of all bldgs. Hard to know-- I guess we’ll have to follow the news as it breaks. What a tragedy.</p>
<p>I am wondering how prepared university campuses are for this kind of massacre. After all, it was only a few years ago due to Columbine that schools started becoming prepared for things like this. </p>
<p>I used to be a college prof, and I was never given any instructions about how to handle a schooting. My husband currently is a prof, and I’ve never heard him talk about being trained on how to handle this kind of situation. </p>
<p>What’s next? Will all churches, hospitals, nursing homes, shopping centers need plans about what to do in case of massacres?</p>
<p>This is a sad statement about our country, which has placed more emphasis on the war on terror than the ongoing war of U.S. citizens killing other people in this country.</p>
<p>I recently volunteered in the Caribbean teaching journalism to a group of teens on a very peaceful small island. </p>
<p>The high murder rate in the U.S. became apparent to me when I realized that I kept giving actual story examples of things that high school and college students that I had taught had had to cover, and many of those story examples had to do with murders, including murders of college students who were doing nothing that normally would put them into harm’s way.</p>
<p>This is just horrible. How can one human being do this to another? It’s a sad day. My prayers go to the families of those who have been lost and all the VA Tech students.</p>
<p>Have they found the shooter(s) yet?</p>
<p>Northstarmom,
It is a sad statement about our country, indeed. 
One of many in recent years, it seems.</p>
<p>I think a lot of people are going to question the timeline and the emergency communication system. The shootings were 2 hours apart.</p>
<p>I have a nephew at VT and he is thankfully ok.</p>
<p>So true, Northstarmom. On the tv news they keep talking about a series of bomb scares that took place at VT last week and wondering whether they might have been an attempt on the part of the killer to see how prepared the school was.</p>
<p>
We all have to have emergency plans filed these days. We have multiple ones…one for flu pandemic, natural disaster, terrorist attack, etc. </p>
<p>In my res life days, I had a binder full of scenarios with lists of tasks to do and people to contact. It was pretty elaborate and on top of that, we had what we called a PTI Team (post-traumatic incident team), a group of counseling and res life staff that would respond to any major incident to help with the emotional effects.</p>
<p>Northstarmom, I couldn’t agree more. I too have wondered about the safety of college campuses against threats of this nature. I wonder what will be the fallout from this horrific incident in terms of safety measures for campuses across this country.</p>
<p>Just called D to let her know that from what we’ve heard so far, their friends are ok–she was just sobbing, which only got me started all over again. Our kids have been through so much in the NoVa area. They were so close to what happened at the Pentagon on 9/11 and we knew people who died on that plane. They were in schools very close to the sniper shootings in the MD/DC/VA area the next year–in lockdown for a month with soccer games, etc. cancelled area wide and she was in London when the subway/buses were attacked. She is so upset, and feels so far from home right now up in Boston.</p>
<p>Just keep talking to your kids, no matter where they are at school, and let them know that you love them, and are sending them big hugs, and praying for them every day that they will always be safe. It is so important to find out how they are feeling when something like this happens. Even if they don’t know anyone at VT, just the idea that they are away at college has them feeling very vulnerable right now. Pick up the phone, and talk to them–be sure to tell them how much you love them!!</p>
<p>Special coverage of the Virginia Tech shooting is starting right now on National Public Radio for those who follow NPR.</p>
<p>From one article I read- there was a lock down very quickly after the first shooting, but it was lifted, possibly after someone was arrested? ( who apparently wasn’t the shooter)</p>
<p>prevention is 3/4s.
I realize that for some who are motivated, there always will be a way to get anything, but we shouldn’t make it as easy as it is, to get semi automatic weapons</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Apparently the shooter went into the engineering building after the first dorm incident and locked himself into a classroom, chaining the door shut to prevent escape. I would imagine that a lengthy hostage-type standoff ensued and he eventually killed the victims in that room execution-style. Very grim stuff.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18134671/[/url]”>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18134671/</a></p>
<p>Is anyone listening to the Tiffany Otey interview on CNN? She was in the engineering building a floor above the shootings. She’s talking about what she experienced. She’s so shook up. It’s so awful listening to her. How are these kids suppose to finish out the school year after this?</p>
<p>Beyond horrifying. Beyond words. Love and prayers to all.</p>
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</p>
<p>Several centuries after Boileau noted the hypocrisy of the critics, it is still easier is to utter platitudes than to offer reasonable solutions! No country is immune from the actions of terrorists and deranged lunatics. </p>
<p>The sad statement about our country is that some see every tragedy as an excuse for waving the accusatory fingers and launching yet another callous blame game. </p>
<p>This is a time to mourn the innocent victims. The rest can wait.</p>
<p>Heartbreaking. I am in tears. This was a school that was temporarily on my Son’s radar.
Love and Prayers and Hugs to all.</p>