Virginia Tech Massacre

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June 2008
- Judge OKs $11M Settlement for Va. Tech Families
  
  newser | Washington Post | Jun 18, 08 7:44 AM CDT
  
  A Virginia judge yesterday approved an $11 million settlement with 42 families of those killed or injured in last year's Virginia Tech shootings, the Washington Post reports. The families sued after a panel concluded that lives might have been saved if the university contacted students immediately after the first shootings. Instead, 2.5 hours passed before an email warning was sent, just 10 minutes before the second rampage, which claimed 32 lives. More »
April 2008
- Va. Tech Marks Grim Anniversary
  
  newser | Washington Post | Apr 16, 08 10:16 AM CDT
  
  A year after the tragic shootings in which 33 people died, members of the Virginia Tech community are still doing their best to heal, reports the Washington Post . "We have struggled to equilibrium," says a writing instructor at the university, "But no matter how strong we are, how wise we are, it hurts." More »
- Scrawled Threats Shut Down Chicago College
  
  newser | Chicago Tribune | Apr 12, 08 8:32 AM CDT
  
  In the wake of campus shootings at Virginia Tech and NIU, threats in a bathroom stall at Chicago’s St. Xavier University prompted an indefinite campus shutdown last night. After graffiti appeared for the second time Thursday, this time reading “Be prepared to die 4/14,” school authorities told students to leave campus and suspended operations, the Chicago Tribune reports. More »
- Virginia Tech Families, State Reach $11M Deal
  
  newser | Roanoke Times | Apr 10, 08 1:09 PM CDT
  
  Victims’ families in the Virginia Tech shootings have settled with the state for $11 million in a deal to prevent future lawsuits, lawyers said today. The lawyers, who represented 21 families, are mum on details pending finalization, reports the Roanoke Times . At least 20 families had earlier warned they might sue over the tragedy last April 16, when student Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 and wounded more at the school before killing himself. More »
March 2008
- Colleges Apply Lessons From Shootings
  
  newser | Associated Press | Mar 29, 08 11:00 AM CDT
  
  In the wake of shootings on college campuses, administrators around the nation are forming threat-assessment groups and rethinking policies about sharing information on troubled students, the AP reports. "If a student is a danger to himself or others, all the privacy concerns go out the window,” said an administrator at the University of Kentucky, whose panel of administrators, police, and mental health officials meets twice a month. More »
- $100K Virginia Tech Offer Slammed as 'Insult' to Victims
  
  newser | Virginian-Pilot | Mar 25, 08 3:20 AM CDT
  
  The state of Virginia is offering $100,000 to each family of the 32 students and teachers killed by a lone gunman in the Virginia Tech massacre, the Virginian-Pilot reports. If accepted, the settlement would prevent families from suing the state for negligence. One attorney called the offer "for a human life an insult, an absolute insult." More »
- Va. Tech, NIU Gun Dealer: Arm Students
  
  newser | Los Angeles Times | Mar 5, 08 1:29 PM CST
  
  Eric Thompson sold guns to both the Northern Illinois University and Virginia Tech shooters, but he’s not apologizing for it. “I’m a businessman,” he tells the Los Angeles Times . “It’s a product.” But Thompson thinks he knows how to stop such violence: allow students to carry guns. “We know it’s going to happen again. It’s time to hit it head on.” More »
February 2008
- Students Aren't Signing Up for Text Alert Systems
  
  newser | Associated Press | Feb 28, 08 6:15 PM CST
  
  Campus shootings keep making headlines, and schools are increasingly adopting text message alert systems as a response—but students aren't jumping on the bandwagon, the AP reports. Experts chalk up low enrollment rates to students' sense of invincibility, unwillingness to reveal personal information and the cost of receiving texts. "It will take time to earn their trust," said one spokesman. More »
- Same Gun Dealer Supplied NIU and Va. Tech Killers
  
  newser | Associated Press | Feb 16, 08 5:15 AM CST
  
  An online gun dealer who helped arm the Virginia Tech shooter also sold accessories to the killer in Thursday's Northern Illinois University rampage, the AP reports. "I'm still blown away by the coincidences," said Eric Thompson, whose company, TGSCOM, is based in Green Bay. He called a federal agency yesterday when he realized he had sold two magazines and a holster to Illinois shooter Stephen Kazmierczak. More »
- States Weigh Allowing Guns on Campuses
  
  newser | USA Today | Feb 15, 08 5:23 PM CST
  
  Twelve states are considering bills that would allow people to carry guns at public universities, USA Today reports, a response to last year's Virginia Tech massacre. "The only way to stop a person with a gun is another person with a gun," says a University of Cincinnati sophomore who has a license but is barred from having a weapon on campus. More »
December 2007
- College Suicide Prevention Trumps Privacy
  
  newser | Wall Street Journal | Dec 28, 07 12:15 PM CST
  
  After the Virginia Tech massacre highlighted the issue of student safety, more colleges began risking legal action by telling parents when their kids suffer from mental health problems, the Wall Street Journal reports. Cornell University, battling a reputation for stressed-out students, is now training staff to seek out and report signs of anxiety. The approach skirts a student privacy law on a technicality. More »
- Va. Tech to Turn Shooting Site into Peace Studies Center
  
  newser | Washington Post | Dec 20, 07 6:20 PM CST
  
  Virginia Tech's Norris Hall will soon house the university's new Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention, in an effort to keep alive the memory of those who died in that building during the April 16 massacre. School officials announced the plan today, after a several months-long deliberation about how to use the massive, 4,300 square foot building, the Washington Post reports. More »
- Penn State Costumes Spark Va. Tech Wrath
  
  newser | Washington Post | Dec 9, 07 11:22 AM CST
  
  Virginia Tech is in an uproar over Penn State students who dressed up for Halloween as Tech shooting victims, then posted the tasteless pictures on Facebook, reports the Washington Post . The reaction has been both mournful and violent. "People all over Penn State—students, faculty, alumni—are appalled at what they've done," said a Penn official. Website moderators have had to remove threatening comments. More »
- Omaha Shooter Led Troubled Young Life
  
  newser | CNN | Dec 6, 07 10:42 PM CST
  
  The Omaha youth who went on a shooting rampage in a busy mall spent much of his later teen years in institutions and foster care because of behavioral and psychiatric problems, CNN reports. Robert Hawkins' trouble began five years ago, when he was sent to a treatment center after threatening to kill his stepmother, a state official said. More »
November 2007
- FBI's Mental Health Gun-Ban List Doubles
  
  newser | Washington Post | Nov 29, 07 5:38 PM CST
  
  Spurred by April shootings at Virginia Tech, new reporting of mental health data has doubled the number of Americans banned from purchasing guns on such grounds, Attorney General Michael Mukasey said today. Nearly 220,000 names have been added to the FBI list, highlighting the data-sharing gap that allowed shooter Seung Hui Cho to buy guns though a court deemed him mentally defective. More »
- Students Aim to Put Guns on Campus
  
  newser | Time | Nov 22, 07 11:43 AM CST
  
  Thousands of college students think they have a way to make their campuses safer: more guns. Students with a license to carry concealed weapons should be able to do it on campus, argues the group Students for Concealed Carry on Campus. “It’s the basic right of self defense,” said one student. “Here on campus, we don’t have that right.” More »
October 2007
- 6 Months After Virginia Tech, Lawsuits Loom
  
  newser | Associated Press | Oct 13, 07 3:36 PM CDT
  
  The Virginia Tech shootings six months ago Tuesday left 32 people dead and 20 threatening to sue. A lawyer yesterday notified state and town officials that he represents the families of 12 people killed and eight wounded; the group is weighing legal action on the grounds that town employees “failed to conduct a reasonably thorough and professionally appropriate investigation,” the AP reports. More »
August 2007
- Virginia Tech Massacre 'Could Have Been Stopped'
  
  newser | New York Times | Aug 30, 07 5:35 AM CDT
  
  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. More »
- Va. Tech Never Knew of Shooter's Disorder
  
  newser | Washington Post | Aug 28, 07 5:28 AM CDT
  
  Fairfax County school officials knew that the outcast student who shot dead 32 people at Virginia Tech had selective mutism, a serious social anxiety disorder that prevented him from speaking in many situations. But federal privacy laws blocked disclosure of that information to Virginia Tech, reports the Washington Post . More »
- Shooting Report Levels No Blame at Virginia Tech
  
  newser | CNN | Aug 22, 07 7:17 PM CDT
  
  Virginia Tech's response to the April shootings that left 33 dead got a free pass in an internal review today, CNN reports. Although the university should improve its communications systems and means of monitoring troubled students, the report says, it found no fault with how school officials and police handled the incident. The spree was the worst school massacre in US history. More »