By John Garces/sports editor
The security of our nation’s college campuses has been under scrutiny since the horrific events of April 16, the day when the worst campus shooting in our country’s history occurred at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Va.
The result of the shootings, committed by Cho Seung-Hui, was 32 deaths before he turned the gun on himself.
Recently, an independent investigation of Virginia Tech’s handling of the crisis found the school’s police force incorrectly handled the events between the first on-campus shooting and the second two hours later.
Additionally, the report also blamed the university for not having enough information on the shooter and the Virginia mental health system for its failure to recognize the signs that Cho was a troubled individual.
Speaking in a news conference after the findings were released, Gov. Tim Kaine said, “The dots were not connected. The signals were missing at Virginia Tech.”
In the wake of this tragedy, everybody wants to pass the buck on who’s to blame.
I pass it down to the mental health system in the state of Virginia, as well as the faculty and staff at VT. Some knew of the gunman’s troubled history yet allowed Cho to go free on several occasions, declaring him stable and in good mental health despite signs to the contrary.
People who talk openly about their admiration for the 1999 Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colo., or exhibit homicidal or suicidal behavior in their college English class obviously have issues that need to be dealt with. Therefore, they should not be allowed to walk out the doors of a mental health facility with a clean bill of health.
“ The mental health system failed in that instance because there was a court order for treatment that we now know was not complied with,” Kaine said.
The lessons everybody should have learned from this, and other tragedies, is they can be prevented.
When parents send their children away to college, they don’t expect them to come back in body bags. But thanks to a lack of communication from all sides involved, 32 young adults did.
For the sake of college students everywhere, the levels of communication must be tightened at every level of school and government.
Incidents like this probably can’t be avoided completely, but with a little attention to detail, maybe they can be stopped before more innocent lives are lost.
