A Virginia Tech Student Speaks About the Tragedy

Almost eight years ago, I was a Virginia Tech Senior watching the horrific events unfolding at Columbine High School in Colorado. Today, April 16, 2007, from my house in New York I watched the carnage unfolding at my former college. We know now that the death toll is at 33, including the gunman, and that number could still rise depending on the outcome of the wounded that are in critical conditions in hospitals around the region. I just cannot comprehend that my beloved Blacksburg will now have the negative connotations associated with Columbine. Almost twelve hours after the initial shootings in West AJ (the dorm), there are still so many unanswered questions.

The main thing that I cannot understand is why, even if the police felt that the AJ incident was contained, that the campus was not notified earlier that a gunman was still not in custody. Even if the police thought that he had fled campus, there was the possibility that he could return. Unfortunately, by all likelihood, this is what took place. The police are still maintaining that the situations were most likely linked, which hopefully will be determined by ballistics obtained from both crime scenes shortly.

The police have also released that they have a "preliminary identification" of the shooter. It is believed that the identification took so long because at the scene, the gunman had no identifying items (such as an ID card or cell phone) that could immediately identify him. It was also reported on MSNBC that his face was not easily identifiable, presumably from the damage of his self-inflicted gunshot that killed him. There is also a report of a "person of interest" that is not in custody. I understand that the police do not want to release information without verification or that could compromise the case, but we need answers. We need that first step to healing.

I hope that the media does not get so caught up in the blame-game that they lose sight of the most important thing: at least 32 innocent people died today. Although I do feel that the warnings about the first shootings could have come out sooner, President Steger was exactly right in saying that most people would not have gotten the message anyway. In order to get to a class, especially if you are a commuter, you usually have to leave at least an hour before that class to get a parking spot, or to allow enough time in the bus schedule. And it is unrealistic to think that all of these commuters would have checked their email or would have been listening to the radio. Some of the students interviewed said that even though they got the initial email warning (at 9:30am) that they didn't believe it at first.

It is obvious that there are lessons to learn from this tragedy, but we have to consider that we are now looking at everything in the relative calmness of the aftermath, and as we all know, hindsight is 20/20. The Virginia Tech Police are a competent force, not just rent-a-cops, and if they say that they thought they were doing right by the student body, I believe them. It just doesn't make sense that if they felt there was a legitimate danger to the rest of the population on Tech's grounds that they wouldn't have acted on that.

If there is one ray of light on this whole situation, it is the spirit and attitudes of the Hokie Nation. The students that have been interviewed all night long have all said that they still feel that Blacksburg and Virginia Tech are safe places, and that this incident will not deter them from attending classes there once this ordeal is behind them. Their reactions are not ones of anger, but of shock and sadness. I emailed a daughter of my husband's co-worker who is a freshman at VT, and she said that she is mostly just shocked and confused...that she just wished she was home.

I spent five years at Virginia Tech, and never once did I feel that it was an unsafe place to be. I have walked alone at night, both on campus and off, without a second thought. It breaks my heart that this is going to be our legacy: the worst shooting incident in the history of the United States. Virginia Tech has so much more to offer than this random act of violence. I just hope that people keep in mind that the only true person to blame is the shooter.