Horror
That's my reaction to the Virginia Tech Massacre. Pure unadulterated horror. Thirty-three people dead, including the gunman, a 23-year old senior in the worst mass slaying in the history of the country. When I first heard about this, I just caught a little bit of radio over the din of the place where I was eating lunch. However, I spaced it out, until about 3:00 when I slid over to espn.com to see if there was anything happening in the world of sports.There was a large link to abcnews as abc and espn are partners. I read that and promptly changed the channel to CNN. For about an hour, I watched all of the details coming in, while watching the official death toll rise.
There was much desicion about lockdown procedures, and why they weren't implemented. Even our high school went through a lockdown drill and the response from students made me think. I don't think a lockdown in an unsafe environment is the proper idea. You've gone to lockdown with an armed, clearly disturbed person in the building. All you've effectively done is give the armed person more targets in almost a controlled environment. In this situation, I think the supression of the fleeing instinct is not the ideal route.
I know the guy at V-Tech chained doors. At least that was said on the news reports last night. Clearly methodical, this was certainly a tradgedy. I was bothered by a reporter this morning who called it "the greatest" shooting in history. Greatest? I mean really. There are 32 people who have been murdered for no appearant reason and he calls it great. I wish I was close to him, because I would have kicked him in the nuts for all of the families of the people who passed.
As the backlash from this grows, I see the University pres, getting the hammer dropped upon him. A mass email sent out at 9:26 saying there had been a shooting? Fourteen minutes later the 911 calls begin. Maybe it's me, but in light of the bomb threats they had, I think classes should have been cancelled immediately. That raises the question of how to get the word out. Surely, there are people in the building who have accsess to a phone. Type up a simple "All Classes Canceled Today" sheet and tape it to the front doors. Students will get the message.
As for me, I'm 30 years old. I don't even feel safe now, going to WSU. This incident will make people gaze at others out of the corner of their eyes and wonder. As sick as society is at times, copycats do happen.
What if....
posted by Rusty @ 7:17 AM
Comments: 1
