The recent tragic shooting at Virginia Tech seems to have brought about in its wake, the almost predictable response of demands of resignation, threats of lawsuits, demands for stricter gun control laws and cries of a lax handling the situation. In hindsight, many things are plainly visible but maybe we shouldn't rush to judge on hindsight, rather use what can be learned from this horrific tragedy to improve our foresight.
We now live in an age of instant information, chained it seems at times to a cell phone or a computer and because of this, notification of the students on campus after the first shooting has been criticized. It was not until almost two hours after the first shots were fired that students were notified silently by e mail. Although it has not been shown yet that the authorities had any reason to believe the initial shooting was anything more than an isolated event at the time and an immediate lockdown of the campus was not needed. However, today there are more advanced methods of notification available to universities that if used may have limited or prevented much of the devastating loss of life.
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte is one of 10 schools that is using Digital Acoustic's high-tech intercom system that can instantly broadcast a message within a single classroom or an entire campus. It is one of ten schools out of an estimated 4,140 universities and colleges in the US using this alert system. The remaining 4,130 or so schools, including Virginia Tech, still rely on e mails and less efficiant methods to contact the students and faculty in case of emergency.
In hindsight, it is evident that many would hold Virginia Tech to a higher standard, a conclusion that is easy but hardly fair. The fact is, Virginia Tech had procedures in place that are similar to just about every other college - the same technology that is "protecting" thousands of college students today and will be doing so tomorrow as well, unless changed.
Security technology and highly trained officers all come at a price, not only the money that is needed within a budget to afford them but the increased feeling of "creating a fortress" for our college students at a time in their lives when they should be experiencing freedom of thought, choice, speech and individual independence.
Technology alone can't be relied upon to have found one student within an estimated 26,000 students enrolled there. In hindsight, many things have emerged in the history of the shooter..... his writings, his behavior over a long period of time, his temporary commitment for mental health issues and his contact with the police in regards to stalking women. The question remains though, how did all of this not alert those in power and lead them to at least suspend or expell him for violations of student conduct and behavior rules?
It seems that there were less than 5 people who actually stepped forward and lodged serious complaints about this man, from a professor who was disturbed enough from his writings and behavior towards other students to remove him from her class, the women who lodged complaints with the police about him, to the student who called to report his possibly being suicidal, prompting his brush with mental health. Many more stories have emerged since this tragedy about his behavior or the fears others felt about him... beliefs from his roommates that he was strange, shunned human contact, was a stalker and engaged in strange prank calls. Only 7 of a class of 70 remained in attendance because of fears of his behavior and numerous women state that he photographed them without permission. Yet, only a few made an official complaint against him that would alert the system to his behavior.
I am sure that there will be those who will cry out for tighter gun control laws as well because of this......... this young man passed all of the background checks, both state and federal, waited the appropriate time limits and according to the store owner where he purchased one of his handguns, did not give them any reason to believe that he was planning anything other than legal uses for it. Tightening the existing background checks to prevent another person such as this man from purchasing a gun legally while affecting hundreds of other legal purchasers, will do little for prevention in my opinion. If you think differently, see http://lamplighternews.blogspot.com/2007/04/gun-control-and-safety.html#links : a good link showing gun control does not reduce gun violence.
What seems to needs fixing is the atmosphere that allowed so many to ignore his behavior and not take steps to officially report about it. We must also find out why the few complaints that were made, seem to have fallen through the cracks. What we do not need though is the backlash brought on by hindsight and the pain this horrendous tragedy has brought out to be used as justification for restricting our civil liberties. Just this Monday, a student was arrested following a class discussion of the shooting - his offense was making "comments about understanding how someone could kill 32 people". In justifying the arrest, other students said that the young man was angry about all kinds of things and they were afraid to come to class with him. It is ironic that a student is arrested for expressing an opinion at a university where diversity of opinion and free speech is supposedly encouraged and valued.
The cries to force the Dean of Virginia Tech to resign also do little to prevent this, it has not been shown yet, that he did in fact do nothing to suspend or expell this particular student. He is also the one who may be able to answer best how this student was not discovered sooner as the danger he has proven he was. He will have to live with results of his recent choices and actions in regards to this student....... forcing his resignation before answers are found as to why the danger this student posed, wasn't more accurately seen and handled with more effectively may do little for prevention in the future and only satisfy those who want retribution.
I think something that should not be overlooked is the atmosphere that allowed so many who now voice their concerns of the shooter to keep their mouths closed when it certainly would have made a difference to speak up. Only about 5 from a student body of 26,000 made official complaints about him and it is hardly fair to expect the few in charge of those decisions to read the minds of others who had serious concerns about him...... or would we rather have our universities become a police state and have methods installed to track each and every student, records kept of their freely made comments or their behaviors and actions taken against them based on those "secret" files. To me, that sounds too un American.
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