Why weren't the students at Virgina Tech warned?

Question

I know there are thousands of people on the campus at it is nearly impossible to tell every student and faculty member at Va. Tech, but why wasn't a warning sent out? Why was the gunman able to travel 1/2 mile and have 2 hrs. of freedom? I believe that the school should have shut all school activity down. The first shooting was at around 7:15, and classes started at 8 AM. The school had more than enough time to cancel classes and keep the students safe.

Answer 1

The e-mail warning went out two hours after the first shooting. Faculty, staff, and students all reported getting the e-mail around 9:26 am. Which was pathetic. They thought that it was an isolated incident, and a domestic dispute. They said they thought the gunman had fled the campus. You know what. NO D*MN EXCUSE. This was a terrible incedent and the gunman is sure the one to blame. But hold hell, could the school be blamed also? Yes I think so. Some BS emails. WHO, PLEASE TELL ME, has class at 8am and wakes up before 7:45? No students looks at e-mails, or the majority doesnt before the earliest class you can take. give me a break. there should have been more percautions taken. This was all just a mess.

RIP

Answer 2

I am thinking just the same as you are my friend? If there would have been some kind of warning of the first shootings then I think the lives of the other students could have been spared. The shooter waited over two hours before he went on another spree. So that tells you he was waiting to see what was going to happen weather or not there would be some kind of warning. What makes me so mad is that lives could have been spared. When police deal with things like that they shouldn't assume that the incident was isolated, their first step should have been to warn all the other students, especially because this person after the first shooting was still on the loose.

Answer 3

Anywhere between 7:30 and 9:00 AM, the vast majority of students and faculty are on their way, or in the process of getting ready. How many students actually check their email before going to class if they're in a rush? Phone calls and text messages can only reach so many people in time.

IMHO, it would have been best that after the first incident,a patrol car drive around campus and dorms with their megaphone/loudspeaker thingy and warn everyone in that manner. That would have gotten everyones attention, at least around campus dorms, a lot faster.

Answer 4

Please don't make assumptions with out the facts. Police were on the scene around 7:30 when the 911 call came in. The first police on the scene had to try to determine what occured and consult the University who would make the call. Now figure that most people who commute in are well on the way by this point due to the traffic on campus and allowing time to park and walk to class. So then what-send out an email and cause mass panic, maybe car accidents as people try to leave while under a panic? I think they did what they thought was right at the time. This could have occured on almost any college campus. I think that Tech did what they could to try to limit injury-they could not have known what would occur.

Answer 5

Well in a way the school was warned last year i belive the school had to go down on lock down cause of an escaped killer who entered the school. So in a way the school was warned that anyone could get into the school without an id. So today had to happen it's tragic and sad but the school should of had alot better secrutiy after the killer was able to gain access.

Answer 6

The cops thought that the suspect had fled campus after the initial attack. They did not think it was necessary to send out a warning. They paid the price for that mistake 2 hrs later.

Answer 7

BECAUSE, first of all they were warned. a phone call was made to every campus phone, emails were sent out and it was posted ont he website. the part your missing is this was done after the first double homocide. At that point they didnt know anything was going to happen and were trying to figure out where this double homocide came from. then 2.5 hours later the second shootings started....In the view of the campus eyes, the threat was gone. they assumed that whoever shot the first two victims was long gone. they had no idea 2.5 hours later another shooting rampage would begin.

Answer 8

Perhaps after the security review, the policy will change. Maybe there could be a warning siren like the one that is used for a tornado and all students and faculty could be on notice to take cover. However, people should understand that the job of the security guards are to give people a "sense" of security. They cannot provide virtual security. It is also the job of security guards to prevent public panic.

Incidents of violence end sooner or later and after all the reports, investigations and reviews all the sound and fury, people go back to feeling complacent and secure.

I favor allowing individuals to carry concealed weapons if they have had training and have not had a felony conviction. Most of the people in the self-help group Parents of Murdered Children have strong feelings about this issue as well as Citizens against Homicide. (Members of both national groups have suffered the loss of a loved one to homicide) Compassionate Friends is also a self-help group however it is for parents who have lost a child to any cause homicide, accidental death or disease.
http://www.pomc.com
http://www.pomc.org
http://www.murdervictims.com/CAH.html
http://www.compassionatefriends.org

In 1999 at the Columbine High School shooting 22 students were killed.

So far 33 have been confirmed dead at the shootings at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University — (located in the western end of the state near the borders of West Virginia and Tennessee). It has been called the worst mass shooting in modern American history. The shootings began in the Ambler Johnston Hall dormitory at 7:15 a.m. Eyewitnesses described the gunman as an Asian male about 6 feet tall. He apparently shot himself in the head after the killings; part of his face was missing when his body was found.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3045574&page=1

He was said to have quarrelled in a dormitory with his girlfriend, whom he believed had been seeing another man. A student adviser was called to sort out the row. But the killer produced a gun and shot dead both his girlfriend and the adviser.

The second shooting was at Norris Hall. Two hours later he rampaged through an engineering building on the other side of the campus in the town of Blacksburg, killing indiscriminately.

The gunman was said to be of Asian appearance and dressed in maroon hat, leather jacket and black-military style shooting vest.

He had ammunition strapped across his chest as he calmly walked from room to room refilling his two 9mm handguns as he shot students.

He locked the doors of several classrooms to stop anyone escaping. Some terrified students jumped for their lives from fourthfloor windows, while others used desks to barricade doors.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=448955&in_page_id=1811&ct=5

The gunman has been identified as a Chinese man who arrived in the United States last year on a student visa. The 24-year-old man arrived in San Francisco on United Airlines on Aug. 7 on a visa issued in Shanghai
http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/343354,vatech041607.articleprint

The number of dead is almost twice as high as the previous record for a mass shooting on an American college campus. That took place at the University of Texas at Austin on Aug. 1, 1966, when a gunman named Charles Whitman opened fire from the 28th floor of a campus tower. Whitman killed 16 and injured 31.

another good account
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070417/D8OI106O0.html
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Answer 9

and just HOW do you warn all the students? Air raid sirens? The Crazy Shooter Emergency Alert system?

I'm sure something went out, but they were too busy on MySpace to notice.

Answer 10

THANK YOU!!! finally someone who thinks like me!! did you know they had put the school on lockdown....and then when the shootings stopped they lifted it.....and the shooter started up again???? i thought people were smarter than that!!! dont lift a lockdown unless the shooter is dead or in custudy...DUHH!!