1 Killed in Shootings at Virginia Tech

[Buttonz]

Originally Posted by texas*princess

One of the quotes in that story had me going:



At both schools I went to, guns or anything that could be considered a weapon was absolutely forbidden on campus grounds and in the dormitories.

I don't really like that this quote makes it sound like any student can bring a gun to campus and it's OK, because it's not. (At least at the schools I went to... although I doubt that is much different at other schools??)

By us as well. With bi-weekly room checks and random bag searches...getting stuff in would be possible but not that easy.

Originally Posted by angelic1

http://abcnews.go.com/US/VATech/story?id=3059025

I don't blame them at all

[honeychile]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

My parents' anniversary is April 19th - I asked my mom what was the deal with all the tragedies around that date - she said she'd wondered about it, too!

Interesting. I know of four couples who were married on April 18th, and they're all divorced!

[lilzetakitten]

Originally Posted by honeychile

Interesting. I know of four couples who were married on April 18th, and they're all divorced!

Oh yikes. I almost chose that day as my wedding day! Kinda glad I didn't now...

[SWTXBelle]

Well, my parents have been married for 44 years, so it's not all bad!

[OOhsoflyDELTA#9]

Originally Posted by angelic1

http://abcnews.go.com/US/VATech/story?id=3059025

can't blame them at all

[angelic1]

At some point the media needed to leave and I am glad that various students and alumni are letting them know this.

Anyways, I know someone made a remark earlier about me being a student, but I am actually a pretty recent alum who feels like it was just yesterday that I was in those classrooms. Not too mention I am up there at least 10 times a year. More when my boyfriend was still there finishing up his degree.

Anyways I also saw that that crazy WBC (?) group isn't planning on picketting now if they get airtime on some show to speak about the event and their religion. Not sure if it will happen though, the airtime I mean.

[AlexMack]

Originally Posted by angelic1

At some point the media needed to leave and I am glad that various students and alumni are letting them know this.

Anyways, I know someone made a remark earlier about me being a student, but I am actually a pretty recent alum who feels like it was just yesterday that I was in those classrooms. Not too mention I am up there at least 10 times a year. More when my boyfriend was still there finishing up his degree.

Anyways I also saw that that crazy WBC (?) group isn't planning on picketting now if they get airtime on some show to speak about the event and their religion. Not sure if it will happen though, the airtime I mean.

The airtime thing has been done before for them. I'm willing to bet any media outlet will gladly give them some time to spew their shit. There's actually a great video on youtube where the interview starts out civilly between the anchor and Shirley Phelps? and by the end, the anchor is just screaming at Shirley. Pretty much what we all want to do. I'll see if I can dig up some photoshops for you, we had a thread on another forum where they photoshopped over the signs and made it completely hilarious. I'll post them in another thread of course.

[DeltAlum]

Originally Posted by kstar

Or because they always hold the conventions in mid-April?

?

Something about April I don't know?

[kstar]

Originally Posted by DeltAlum

?

Something about April I don't know?

I was just saying that it isn't a coincidence, as many of those events were planned to happen (columbine at least) because of the historical significance of the dates. It also isn't a coincidence that they place the convention in mid-April, as it is a great time for travel (spring breaks over, but nice weather) and cheaper than summer rates at hotels.

[jon1856]

Originally Posted by kstar

I was just saying that it isn't a coincidence, as many of those events were planned to happen (columbine at least) because of the historical significance of the dates. It also isn't a coincidence that they place the convention in mid-April, as it is a great time for travel (spring breaks over, but nice weather) and cheaper than summer rates at hotels.

Just had this thought, while reading this, that Hitler's birthday is also around this time?
Just checked: it is. April 20th

IIRC, there was some talk about this during the other events.

[DeltAlum]

Originally Posted by kstar

I was just saying that it isn't a coincidence, as many of those events were planned to happen (columbine at least) because of the historical significance of the dates. It also isn't a coincidence that they place the convention in mid-April, as it is a great time for travel (spring breaks over, but nice weather) and cheaper than summer rates at hotels.

Ah. Got ya. That makes some sense. I hadn't thought about it that way.

And now, I remeber the Hitler birthday thing from the Columbine coverage.

This thing has had quite an effect around here due to our proximity to Columbine. (Daughter two used to live just across Clement Park from the high school)

Bad stuff.

[DeltAlum]

I think this is a pretty good analysis piece:

http://www.dailypress.com/news/local...lines-virginia

[James]

'I Saw Bullet Holes Coming Through the Door'
He almost cut French class. But Colin Goddard made the fateful decision to attend that Monday morning—and wound up full of bullets. One student in Cho's path.

April 18, 2007 - Monday began normally enough for Colin Goddard, a 21-year-old international studies student in his fourth year at Virginia Tech. His first class was French, at 9:05 a.m., in 211 Norris Hall, but Goddard was running a little late because he'd picked up a classmate who was having car problems. After toying with the idea of cutting class that day, the two of them decided to go. There were about 17 students enrolled in the course, many of them International Studies majors fulfilling their language requirements. Many had taken a lower-level French course together the previous semester.
As they entered the room, they heard a series of loud bangs that sounded like they were coming from the hallway, or maybe from the class next door. "Please tell me that's not what I think it is," the teacher, Madame Jocelyne Couture-Nowak, said to the class. "We told her it was no big deal," Goddard told NEWSWEEK. "There has been a lot of construction going on at Norris. People were complaining about it all semester, and it sounded like it could have been a hammer." Couture was concerned enough to open the class door and peek out into the hallway. "She immediately shut the door—she had this terrified look on her face—and she said 'Call 911,'" Goddard said.

Goddard pulled out his cell phone, dialed 911 himself, and with the operator on the line, began trying to explain the situation and where he was calling from. The operator was having trouble understanding Goddard and kept repeating the wrong location back to him. At the same time, other students were trying to barricade the classroom door that for some reason wouldn't or couldn't lock. "After that, I saw bullet holes start coming through the door," Goddard said. "It looked like he was trying to shoot the lock out. When he started firing at the door, I hit the floor."

After a few seconds, Cho came into the room. Goddard, his view of the classroom door partly obstructed by a desk, got his first glimpse of the killer. "He had on boots, dark pants and a white shirt. All of the students were on the ground, and he just started walking down the rows of desks, shooting people multiple times. He didn't say anything. He didn't demand anything. He was just shooting." The 911 operator was still on the phone, and Goddard, not wanting to draw attention to himself, dropped it to the floor. A girl named Heidi picked it up, begging the police to hurry. But it was too late, and Cho turned toward them. "I think he heard the police on the phone," Goddard said. "He shot some people near me, he shot the girl across from me in the back. Then I felt a very forceful rush of air and a pinch or a sting in my leg." Goddard felt himself flinch when the bullet hit him, but he did his best to stay still, to play dead. "Nobody tried to get up and be a hero," he said. Then the shooting stopped.

Goddard resisted the urge to move or try to look around. "I thought he was still in the room." Soon the gunshots started again, back out in the hallway; other sounds in the classroom were now audible. A few students were calling out to each other, Goddard said. He heard the voice of the 911 operator, still squawking into his cell phone, and saw Christina, the girl who had been shot in the back. A male student on the floor near him was making a low, constant gurgling sound. "We were just lying on the floor" for what Goddard estimates as 10 to 15 minutes. He heard more gunshots outside. Then, sirens. And shouts.

Suddenly, the classroom door burst open again. The killer was back. "He came back in and started going around the room again, shooting people." Up one aisle and down another, Cho moved through the room, repeating the path he had taken the first time. When the killer reached Goddard, he felt two more bullets punch into his body, one in the shoulder, and one in his buttocks. "My chest and torso were kind of underneath a desk, that's why I think I got shot in my extremities," he told NEWSWEEK

[BetteDavisEyes]

My school, The University of La Verne, held a prayer service for the victims of the tragedy last week. There are also ribbons commemorating each life taken (minus the killer) outside the school library. It was very touching to see them this week and read the names on each ribbon.

[Taualumna]

I'm just wondering if any media have addressed stigma attached to mental illness in certain cultures, which may have played a role into the killer's disintegration (I know that he has had help, but I am wondering if it was already too late). Or is this too sensitive a topic right now?