Gap in notifications in VA Tech shootings

[novasig226r]

CNN is reporting on a gap in time from the beginning of the shootings until a campus-wide notification was sent. Some officials at VA Tech are reported to have notified family members and some staffers, including an email posting that announced a gunman on campus but "This is not releasable yet".

The tragedy of the VA Tech shootings will continue to spark debate. If the report holds water, however, I think it clearly shows how POLICY can impede the safety of the population. Too many sheeple believe that our protection is given (and effected) by our government(s) rather than people holding their safety as their PERSONAL concern. How a notice of a loose gunman could possibly be considered "not releasable yet" is lost on me. It seems that critical information is being withheld until a conference committee can decide on the best course of actions. Insane.

Meanwhile, unarmed people are being killed. Since, as we all know, VA Tech was/is a gun-free zone, the delay in the notifications by officials didn't help the survivability of the population. It seems to be a "alert-free" zone too.

Policy cannot dictate safety. Committees cannot save citizens. When will politicians realize that the individual must remain empowered to defend him/herself?

-sig

[k5mitch]

I agree 100%

I was a student at VT in 01-03, and am now back on campus as a student (resumed class in 08).

It befuddles me why for fear of my academic career I can carry on one side of the street, and not the other

[GS78]

CNN is reporting on a gap in time from the beginning of the shootings until a campus-wide notification was sent. Some officials at VA Tech are reported to have notified family members and some staffers, including an email posting that announced a gunman on campus but "This is not releasable yet".

The tragedy of the VA Tech shootings will continue to spark debate. If the report holds water, however, I think it clearly shows how POLICY can impede the safety of the population. Too many sheeple believe that our protection is given (and effected) by our government(s) rather than people holding their safety as their PERSONAL concern. How a notice of a loose gunman could possibly be considered "not releasable yet" is lost on me. It seems that critical information is being withheld until a conference committee can decide on the best course of actions. Insane.

Meanwhile, unarmed people are being killed. Since, as we all know, VA Tech was/is a gun-free zone, the delay in the notifications by officials didn't help the survivability of the population. It seems to be a "alert-free" zone too.

Policy cannot dictate safety. Committees cannot save citizens. When will politicians realize that the individual must remain empowered to defend him/herself?

-sig

I will say two things about this...one, hindsight is 20/20....and there was an elderly Israeli Professor(Im sorry I don't recall his name, shame on me) who held the door while twenty plus able- bodied young people fled the room via a window while this man was shot to death through the door....I suggest those people were empowered to protect themselves, they did. What they did not do was return the protection offered by their profesor.

[k5mitch]

I will say two things about this...one, hindsight is 20/20....and there was an elderly Israeli Professor(Im sorry I don't recall his name, shame on me) who held the door while twenty plus able- bodied young people fled the room via a window while this man was shot to death through the door....I suggest those people were empowered to protect themselves, they did. What they did not do was return the protection offered by their profesor.

Holocaust survivor IIRC.

[hak]

from http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/122137

(IsraelNN.com) As Israel observed Holocaust Day, thousands of miles away, A Rumanian-born Holocaust survivor gave his life in another senseless murder - and apparently in an act of heroism.

Among the 32 people killed by a lone gunman at Virginia Tech Monday is 77-year-old engineering professor, Liviu Librescu, a citizen of Israel. According to eyewitness accounts, Librescu ran to the door of his classroom and blocked it with his body – preventing the gunman from entering but getting shot to death himself as a result.


Alec Calhoun, a 20-year-old student who had been in Librescu's class in room 204, told a reporter that at 9:05 a.m. the heard screams and a loud banging sound from the next-door classroom. When the students realized it was gunfire, he said, some hid behind tables, and others leapt from the classroom's windows. Calhoun himself was among the last to jump. "Before I jumped from the window, I turned around and looked at the professor, who stayed behind, maybe to block the door. He had been killed."

Librescu is survived by his wife of 42 years, Marlena, who was with him in Virginia, and sons Aryeh and Joe who are in Israel. They intend to bury him in Israel.

Asael Arad, an Israeli student who visited the widow after the tragedy, told Army Radio Tuesday that Marlena had been receiving e-mails from students who credited Prof. Librescu with saving their lives. "I lost my best friend," the widow told a reporter for NRG at her home near the Blacksburg campus. "He was a great person, who loved teaching more than anything." Marlena said someone had initially informed her that her husband was injured in the shooting. "I looked for him in the hospitals all day but I didn't find him," she said.

The Librescus are Rumanian Jews who came on aliyah (immigrated to Israel) in 1978 – after then-Prime Minister Begin interceded on their behalf with the Rumanian government, according to Marlena. The couple went on a sabbatical to the United States since 1986 and has been living there ever since

[zephyp]

I've recently read that a couple of other universities voted to continue CC on campus. Colorado maybe? Anyone know?