KATU viewers sound off on critics of Tech officials
KATU viewers e-mailed their thoughts on criticism of the Virginia Tech administration that has surfaced following Tuesday's massacre on campus. For instance, some have questioned why was there a lag of more than two hours after the first shootings before an alarm was e-mailed campuswide - around the time the second, more deadly burst of carnage occurred.
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I think that it was irresponsible for the school to just act like nothing happened. There were students there that didn’t even know what had happened; they were not prepared for anything. I think that there should be changes nation wide on how schools view shootings; they are real.
- Tasha
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Too many times we the people try to out guess the decisions that are made in the time of crises. The News media needs to point a finger at some one or some body so the story will grow. Enough is enough, stop pointing fingers and get on with the healing that needs to be done over this tragedy.
- Ron
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It's easy to jump to the knee jerk reaction in the blame game. A quick google search reveals a campus of over 4 square miles. It also reveals Blacksburg has a FT police force of 74. Assume that both the county Sheriff and campus security has the same number of officers and there still aren't enough bodies to "lockdown an area larger than the Westside of Downtown Portland. Do the math. The VT authorities acted accordingly based on the available information at hand.
- JR
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I believe the administration acted upon the information that was given. I believe they did everything they could in terms of the first shooting. Also, they didn't expect another shooting to happened because they believed the person left the college. It's only been a little time to mourn and already there is an accusation of firing the administration. It's not necessarily to start asking people to step down, instead we should ask the questions on what they could do next time.
- Pavel
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A shooting at any educational facility should be automatically cause a lockdown til an investigation can be conducted. These kids are our future - let's take care of them. Also need to do something about our country's gun laws - way too easy to get a gun.
- Bill and Chris
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I think that the president of Virginia Tech. and the police chief should both be fired for not informing the students that there was a shooting on campus. Notifying them by email is not an effective way to alert students of of an emergency. My college children are more likely to be plugged into their IPODS. Because of a very bad decision 33 people are dead. This could have been avoided with a warning that came much sooner.
- Sarah
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We always wish that we had done more after the facts. My thinkings on this is. Do we close down a city when a shooting happens?
No we close down that section where the first shootings took place, which Virginia Tech Officials and police did. How many times are we going to put the blame on others instead of putting the blame where it is really needed, Us. These children are a product of our society that we raised over the last few generations that we taught to disrepect others and officials. I am 58 years old and have seen the disrespect of children grow each year. The children today are already desensitized to murder and mayhem before they even start school. By exposing them to Video games,Movies and TV we have done this to them. Lets lay the blame where it belongs!
- Larry
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First, I would like to express my sincere condolences to all those students, faculty, and families of all of those injured an suffered loss of life.
Second, I want to say, that everyone is rushing to CTA, to distance themselves from the responsibility they share in Mr. Cho's behavior.
Third, I want to say, that again, "This individual FELL BETWEEN THE CRACKS" and he did not get the proper counseling and or referral to a competent mental health professional.
When one is in the deepest valley of "Darkness, Loss, Paranoia" etc. All symptoms of various forms of mental health problems.
No, I am not a Mental Health Professional. I am on the receiving end of getting help finally.
I had to fight very hard through the system to get someone to listen to me. To get me to the right place, to get medicated, and NO< MY MEDS DO NOT MAKE ME WANT TO COMMIT SUICIDE, Nor want to kill anyone.
Again, he was not put under proper medical supervision, and no one was listening to him.
I am so sad, and over whelmed by what has happened. My heart and mind are sick for all those who must go on.
May you each find the strength, through whatever means you take to put this too, as a LESSON of LIFE,
that we each must LEARN.
Thank you for allowing me to express my thoughts and feelings.
- Patricia
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The public fails to understand the magnatude of this
When reports come in of a crime, most of the time the Criminal is trying to gain as much distance from the scene Of the crime as possible. So with the resources you have Where do you look.
Off campus is the best bet and you Are trying to get to the person before and officer of civilian Comes into contact with the person and impedes the progress Of the individual and gets shot or killed. How many criminals Actually stay in the area of a crime and strike again.
The other thought is that you do communicate the shooting and People may panic and get trampled or hurt on the way out and may In fact run into the arms (or Sights of the gunman).
For the most Part and usually true, that if LE can keep folks inside they are Safer. So this brings up the D### if you do and D## if you don't I love arm chair quarterbacks that have never spent any time in A patrol car and want to call the shots
- BEC
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What bothered me most was to see the hordes of police, swat-team and FBI personnel decked out in the latest paramilitary protective gear, carrying the latest in high-tech weaponry, trained in the latest strategic and tactical methods, all take positions OUTSIDE the building as they listened to the ‘pop-pop-pop’ sounds from the pistol of a calculating gunman as he summarily executed person after person after person. Tragically, they proved to be the latest to fail to 'protect and serve'.
- D
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I know that i don't know all the details or circumstances of what was happening inside those buildings. But i cant imagine what in the world would cause a 2 hour delay in informing people that there lives were in danger. At least 30 lives could have been saved. Is there no way of communicating via intercom or anything of that nature, a siren something to alert people of an emergency?
And why would they still allow students to arrive at school and attend classes when no one had any concrete evidence that the gunmen was truly gone and everyone was out of danger at the school after the first shooting? And how did the gunman get from one building to another that were so far apart without anyone noticing? I am absolutely devastated that so many people are suffering and lives were lost.
And why was this man allowed to continue at school if he had set fires and stalked women, and seen a counselor due to the disturbing things he wrote about in his creative writing class. I see red flags all over this whole situation. I wouldn't be surprised if there were lawsuits coming from every direction. I know if my child had been attending there, they would no longer be today.
I guess if one good thing has come from this tragedy it would be that i for certain am going to my two sons schools and asking what they would do to save my children's life if something so horrible was to happen at there school.
- Melody
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I think that in between the two shooting they should have alerted everyone on campus about it as soon as they new the shooter still could be in that area. I hope other schools learn from this terrific nighmare and don't make the same mistake they did.
- Jessica
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I believe they did their job. Its not something that happens every day. When there is a shooting like the first one it is usually domestic. I don’t believe they had any reason to think that this young man was going to move to the other side of the very large campus and destroy so many lives.These officers were doing their job investigating what they believed was nothing more than a domestic dispute. As for the administration, Mabey they could have put the word out sooner but, again, How could they have known what was to come.
- Kristopher
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Hindsight is always 20/20. We continually pick everyone apart after the fact. Those university officials and police probably did the best they knew how with the information they had. In a perfect world they would have notified everyone, but obviously we do not live in a perfect world!
- Linda
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Hindsight is always stronger than the heat of the moment. It's easy to second guess the officials after tragedy struck. I have faith that they took the course of action that they believed wisest at the moment. Sometimes things don't go the way we expect them to. That is life. We as a society need to be wary of expecting everything to go right all the time.
The young man that did this was bent on destruction and willing to die in the effort to kill numerous other people most of whom, no doubt, we totally innocent of any connection with him It is impossible to totally stop these kinds of events - as much as we would like to.
- Kurt
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If they would have alerted the students and nothing happened then they would have gotten blamed for starting a painc at the school. Either way they would have been wrong. The sad fact is that there is nothing that cuold have been done.. if that student had intentions of going on a killing spree there is nothing they or anyone else could have done.
- Jeff
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I do not believe it if fair to suggest that the administration, the president, or the local police in this incident should be penalized in any way for their actions. There is nothing in the evidence from the initial incident to suggest or predict a shooting rampage of this nature. Given the layout of the campus, the number of faculty and students attending and the access to local traffic and pedestrians, a notification or warning of any sort would have been futile. It would have been impossible to lock down the campus in the time frame between the two shootings and given the nature of the gunman, the fact that he was already on campus and had access to the buildings, he would have carried out his motive whether it was at Norris Hall or in some other area of the campus.
I feel for the innocent people who acted to the best of their ability and are going to be scapegoats for the actions of one disturbed individual. To add negative public opinion to people who so obviously feel a great responsibility to the victims and their families and friends, to the entire student body and faculty at VA Tech, is just pouring salt into deep wounds.
- J. Low
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Why is every incident relegated to "who can we lay blame to." Hindsight will almost always display how improved procedures could have helped. Why does that translate to who's at fault? I don't see how anyone could have expected all students to have been notified and all 100+ buildings locked down, given the knowledge available at 7:15 in the morning after the first incident.
- B Noble
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I blame the media's (all sorts) for giving people the idea that they have a right to expect perfection in all areas of life and that e-mail messages arrive instantly (they don't!). Storms can affect computers!! The only thing that is perfect is hind sight!
- Judith
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Hindsight is always better than when you are going through a situation. They did what they felt was right at the time. You can't fault them for that. Also, you can never prevent bad things happening at all times in all places, especially since there could have been thousands of scenarios that could have happened. The parents who want the administration fired are just trying to place blame on everyone else except the guy who did the shooting. Pretty sad!
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Why don't we stand together as a country instead of pointing blame on somebody. There is only one person to blame here and he took his own life. Let's think about the families and friends of those who lost loved ones instead of trying to find a person to blame.
- Michael
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At this point, no one has enough solid information to base any opinion on, so it's fruitless to survey anyone on this. Let the facts come out before trying to assign blame for this tragedy.....
- Barb