[StBernard] Comments on the horror at VA Tech

Westley Annis westley at da-parish.com
Wed Apr 18 20:19:13 EDT 2007


thanks... My take on the situation is much the same - you will never be
able to totally protect society from freaks who want to do harm.. they'll
find a way to do it. Horror stares you in the face all of a sudden, and
most good people don't know exactly what to do.. it's a nightmare that we
will be seeing played out in the media for years.. makes good copy.. lawyers
and reporters will now have the funds for that new car, boat, trip around
the world, etc... Could happen anywhere - even Thibodaux - at Nicholls, at
EDW...
t

________________________________


I watched the nightmare at VA Tech today in disbelief. I emailed a friend
from college who is now the director of campus housing at the public
university we both attended. I'm putting my email to her first and then her
response. Please read what she has to say about students who may pose a
threat to themselves or others...


Well, how about the idiot on Fox who talked to a survivor and asked
"were you able to get any pictures or video with your cell phone?

Also, "Contessa" on MSNBC was just askance at the the fact that a
Montgomery (VA) county school could go on lockdown but not the
University? HUH? One bldg. versus a campus of 23k college
students-a major University?

How were the administrators supposed to immediately put together the
1st and 2nd shooting incidents?

Thank God I heard one talking voice say basically, we live in a free
and open society. 99.999% or whatever of the
folks live by the
rules.

It's a horrific situation but I don't know how the university could
have done much differently. After watching the grilling the Univ.
prez, campus police chief and another were getting, I would have shut
the presser down and just said written statements would be made
available later and also on the Univ. website. Now at this point in
the afternoon, they had not even contacted all the parents of dead
kids yet.

JLY

Her reply to me:

I agree with your comments. The press has made me sick with the way
they are playing this. I wish they would just let the police conduct
the investigation instead of contribute to the confusion. Students
today thrive on getting their cell phone pictures/videos on
CNN/FOX/MSNBC, etc. The press should be put in the President's
position
and see what they would have done. Being in the shoes of those having
to deal with
this, my heart goes out to them. No matter how much you
drill and plan, you can't be prepared for situations like this. I'm
sure the RA (Resident Assisant)had no idea what was taking place when he
walked into the
room to checkout what was going on. The Dir. of Res Life at VT was on
campus here in Feb. as our guest speaker for res life conference. She
is very well respected in the southeast region among housing officials
and I'm confident lots of training had taken place for residence hall
staff.

I think it had to be a well planned incident since the gunman
barricaded
the doors. Also, I'm not so sure but what this could be two separate
incidents. If is was a domestic situation in the dorm why 2 hours
later
randomly killing class rooms full of innocent students. This thing is
not making
sense.

There is a student on FOX now saying the university didn't notify him
about what was going on and told him to continue to class when he
called
the police. This will never end. I doubt the university has enough
man
power on their force to lock down all 100 buildings on the campus.

Most all campuses across the US are as vulnerable as VT. We now have
laws that will NOT let us dismiss students with mental disorders even
though we think they may be a risk to themselves and other students, so
I anticipate things like this getting more frequent. Let's just pray
the kooky 'copy cat' folks don't get started on this.

Hope all is going well with both of you. I guess I need to start
making
a plan for SWAT training for RA staff next fall. I wonder how many
parents will make their kids
resign the RA jobs for similar fears. We
just finished interviewing/hiring for next fall and need 12 more
persons
to fill our positions. Guess we will not get them now. After all who
in their right mind would want to take a job where you have enforce
policies and rules to a group of people who think we have stupid rules
anyway.








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