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Response By Tech Criticized

August 21, 2007

By Bill McKelway

A campus-safety advocacy group said yesterday that Virginia Tech failed to meet federal warning requirements for students as the mass shootings got under way April 16.

Security On Campus Inc. said it is seeking a federal investigation and sanctions against the Blacksburg university for failing to comply with the 1990 Clery Act, which requires campuses to notify students of dangerous situations in a timely matter.

"We are outraged that, as a new school year begins, there has been no acknowledgment that the campus should have been warned faster, and that nothing should have been handled differently or will be in the future," the group said yesterday in a letter to the U.S. Department of Education.

A spokesman for Virginia Tech did not immediately respond to a phone message from The Times-Dispatch asking for comment but told some news outlets that the school had not seen a copy of the complaint and was focused on other matters.

The complaint, filed yesterday, came as a panel appointed by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine to study the shootings met in Charlottesville to review its findings. The group has said it will issue a report Friday in Richmond.

Former State Police Superintendent W. Gerald Massengill, who leads the panel, told reporters yesterday during a break in the meeting that the report will have "the detail and clarity that will answer most, if not all, the questions" about gunman Seung-Hui Cho and his background.

But Massengill stressed that Cho's relative anonymity — "he was just another student" — made it highly unlikely that he could have been stopped once his shooting spree started April 16. He entered a Virginia Tech dormitory early in the day and killed his first two victims; a little more than two hours later, 31 people would die at Norris Hall. Among those was Cho, who shot himself.

"No one knew who he was," Massengill said. "If Cho was to have been stopped, it would have to have been before those first two hours" during Cho's rampage.

The matter of preventing Cho's assault goes to the student's complex background and multiple missed opportunities to address Cho's problems, Massengill said.

The complaint letter sent by Security On Campus does not directly address whether Cho could have been stopped but criticizes Virginia Tech authorities for not alerting the campus more quickly about an attack.

S. Daniel Carter, vice president of Security On Campus, said from his home in Tennessee last night that the group monitors campus crime and the degree to which students are alerted about imminent danger.

Founded by a Pennsylvania couple whose daughter was raped and strangled at Lehigh University in 1986, Security On Campus was instrumental in the creation of the Clery Act.

"Preventing crime is one issue; we are more involved in reporting crime statistics on campus and monitoring compliance with reporting requirements," Carter said.

In its letter to the Department of Education, the group said Virginia Tech waited more than two hours to alert students about the two shooting deaths at West Ambler Johnston Hall, although the information was known to police minutes after the crime.

Virginia Tech officials and the university's police department have said the school acted promptly and that there were indications the gunman had left the campus. It turned out that the initial suspect in the dorm shootings was not involved.

Alerts to students were first issued at 9:26 a.m. but referred only to "a shooting incident." The alert urged students to be cautious, but classes continued and students proceeded to class.

At 9:50 an alert went out that said "a gunman is loose on campus."

The killings at Norris Hall already had begun.

Carter said federal education officials can assess civil penalties against Virginia Tech and withhold certain funds.

Contact Bill McKelway at (804) 649-6601 or bmckelway@timesdispatch.com.