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December 1, 2008 8:27:37 AM CST

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Virginia Tech Massacre 'Could Have Been Stopped'

Posted Aug 30, 07 5:35 AM CDT in US 

(Newser) – A state investigation into the Virginia Tech massacre, in which 33 students and teachers were killed, concluded that college authorities could have saved lives by acting more quickly to warn students after the first shootings. The report, released last night after the New York Times obtained a copy,  also criticizes the college's failure to insure that gunman Seung-Hui Cho received counseling after a mental-hospital stay.

The killer had been briefly committed by a judge who deemed him a risk, but, in what the report calls a misunderstanding of federal privacy laws, his parents were not notified and and he was allowed to return to classes without follow-up counseling. Once the shooting began, a quicker response might have cut the death toll, the report says, but not prevented the tragedy.

Source New York Times

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Michael Herbstritt, father of Jeremy Michael Herbstritt, is embraced by a Virginia Tech faculty member as he accepts a posthumous graduate degree for his son during a graduation ceremony at Virginia...   (Associated Press)
A mother and daughter, who asked to remain unidentified, hold each other at the memorial for the slain students in front of Burruss Hall on the Virginia Tech Drillfield in Blacksburg, Va., Friday, May...   (Associated Press)
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