As a parent of a freshman at A&M in Texas and having worked

[Decruiter]

all through college at different offices on campus myself, I believe what seems to have transpired today to be rather outrageous.

I had to leave for work around early yesterday afternoon and reports were mostly not knowing what had happened beyond a tragedy. As the evening progressed and I am learning more, I'm angry and feel as though there may be many university officials and police that handled this in a very poor manner.

After the 7:00am shooting and the police knew there was a pissed off boyfriend loose somewhere why weren't students alerted ASAP? I heard an interview with a student about hearing a loud PA announcement as the Norris building shootings began (or something close to that), why did the University not use this "loud", university wide system early this morning after the young woman and the RA had been killed? If they had I do believe many lives may have been saved.

As a mom of a very beautiful young woman in her first year at A&M, if this were happening to her on her campus, I would be in College Station, TX right now and in the morning I would be one of many parents in line to talk with the President of said university.

I feel really badly for everyone in this.

many :cry: and lots of :banghead: along with loads of :nuke: and :argh: , but mostly :cry: for us all.

[Berry Cool]

1. Maybe Va. Tech has the capacity to make "loud PA announcements" in individual buildings

but it is not a "university wide system" in that it can be done simultaneously in every building on campus and throughout all the outdoor areas?

I'm just thinking out loud. I can't think of a situation in which a university could send an aural message to all its students anywhere they are on campus. Email, yes. Audio, no. And of course, email will only reach those who happen to be online when or soon after it is issued.

[Decruiter]

4. I heard the student talking on NPR, he mentioned some sort of loud

PA system telling the students what to do. He (the student) was questioning why the system had not alerted the students earlier.

The system failed these kids, these students, these professors and everyone else on campus starting right after the first shooting in the dorm facility somewhere around 7:15am.

Peace.

[Sadie4629]

2. I'm the mom of a couple of college students myself

I understand your frustration and your worry. But hindsight is always 20/20. The "coulda, shoulda, wouldas" are easy to think of now, but no one could have predicted this kind of a violent act. Fortunately, it just doesn't happen often enough for a college, or business, or anyone to be prepared to deal with the unthinkable.

[youngdem]

3. There are shootings every day near campuses...you can't shut em down every time

This is a case where hindsight is 20/20 and everyone's a genius about what should have been done.

But that is COMPLETELY unfair to the officers and school. The VAST majority of gunmen of course DON'T go to another nearby building and shoot 45 people randomly after shooting (what was reported at the time) his girlfriend and someone who came to her aid.

They could not have EVER known this piece of shit was going to return. Plus, I would not WANT to attend a school or work for an employer that locked down the entire campus every time a shooting occurred nearby. I mean shit, I live in New Orleans, I would never get to leave the house.

I'm gonna just blame the asshole with a gun, and I'm gonna try really hard not to buy into any of the Chicken Little shit about how horribly dangerous America is and how - if we just wipe our ass with a little more of the Constitution - that perhaps a one in a million shooting MIGHT not happen again (which of course it will anyway, and all of our sacrifice will be for naught).

There is NOTHING that could have REASONABLY been done to prevent this, except for perhaps cheaper, better, more widely available mental health care. We just go through this bullshit drill after every random, very rare tragedy to attempt to wrestle control back from fate.

[trumad]

6. This was in a dorm

and a killer was loose... Yes?

[youngdem]

10. So what?

How often do killers go from one scene to another? Hardly ever.

Locking down the campus every time there is an act of violence is an overreaction, and feigning outrage (as most people are at this point, the anger phase) based on hindsight is silly.

Killers are loose across this country. A HUGE percentage of all murders go unsolved. So what? Do we lock down society until they are all caught? Of course not.

What happened was a tragedy, and people are GRASPING for ANYTHING they can point to that shows someone actually had control but blew it because that is far more comforting than admitting that we are never truly safe from someone like this, and we never will be.

It's just the cost of living in a society, and this could have happened in Soviet Russia, in Hitler's Germany, in London's Big Brother society or anywhere else. Guns, anger, desperation and mental illness are sadly not in short supply. Thankfully, this sort of thing doesn't happen more often.

Personally, I am hopeful we won't throw any more freedoms under the bus for this prick, as we always seem to do in such situations. And I hope we don't punish innocent people who just had the misfortune of holding a job when this asshole decided to take some people with him while committing suicide.

[Decruiter]

5. Kick, looking for response from DU. n/t

[Fierce]

7. Domestic disputes rarely escalate into mass murders.

A pissed off guy who wants to kill a woman almost always simply hightails it when he's done. They were going on what they knew.

[lectrobyte]

8. I share your frustration, but some reports indicated that they believed

the first two murders were a murder suicide. Maybe they should have tried to shut the school down, but with 15,000 people commuting in, I'm not sure things would have ended any differently even if they had. I'm speaking as Tech grad, and as a father whose son is now out of college. If someone is crazy enough, and well-armed, then I don't see any way to stop this.

[Decruiter]

9. I just believe the school could have and should have handled the

situation differently after the first incident. They had a way of contacting students very early and did not.

[marions ghost]

11. it's understandable that as a parent

you'd be looking for "the school" to have done better. But no school can guarantee any student's safety from random violence.

It's natural to want to find some means of control over such a situation, but in this society, where any disturbed college kid can obtain a gun with no questions asked, it's really just an illusion of safety.

Recently a young woman I know of was killed outside a shopping mall in broad daylight. The killer took
her purse. And you wouldn't point your finger at the shopping mall, would you?

The question needs to be, when are you as a parent, and the rest of us, as a society --going to stop rationalizing this kind of murder away by finding blame? When are we going to really work to prevent it?

[riderinthestorm]

12. I heard the VT thought the first deaths were a murder/suicide

They hadn't progressed far enough in the first investigation to understand that it was a murder/murder and that the murderer was still on the loose.

I am the mother of a Junior at a major university so I understand your anger but hindsight is 20/20. I expect we'll hear a lot more about the rationale for the 2 hour silence after the initial murders but their first explanation (that they believed they were dealing with a murder/suicide) sounds credible to me.

I am guessing that Cho went to the dorm room to confront the girl and found her in bed with the guy and shot them both. That totally unhinged him, he went back and wrote up his crazy ass rantings and then took off in a mad rage, killing everyone and anyone else.