Continuing Coverage by:

Problems, Solutions at Tech Examined

August 23, 2007

By Bill McKelway

BLACKSBURG — Beefing up security and assessments of troubled students at Virginia Tech will take more money, better communication and further study, according to a nearly 200-page report the university released yesterday.

The report is based on a four-month internal study Virginia Tech conducted in the aftermath of the April 16 massacre of 27 students and five faculty members by a mentally disturbed student who then killed himself.

What the report covers, what it doesn't.

The report refers repeatedly to the "tragic events of April 16, 2007" but does not address the timeliness of the response by law enforcement or warnings sent to students in the following minutes and hours.

The findings point to systemic problems within the university community that created confused protocols for dealing with troubled students, hindered communication with care providers and prompted a need for more training.

"Faculty and administrators expressed concerns about a lack of knowledge about how the system functions for at-risk students," the report notes. It says procedures for reporting troubled students lack clarity and cites "inconsistent follow-up."

Reaction from a family representative:

Vincent Bove, a New Jersey-based security analyst who represents the families of seven Tech victims, called the report "a glossed-over, candy-coated smokescreen that never deals in accountability."

"For the families who lost loved ones, the report is eight years too late," Bove said, referring to wide-ranging security recommendations made after 13 people were killed and 24 wounded at Columbine High School in Colorado in April 1999.

He called the dozens of recommendations in the Tech report a "self-indictment."

Tech officials stressed, however, that the study was meant to give a systemic overview of the university's emergency system, not a fact-based, specific assessment of April 16 events.

The recommendations

In the immediate aftermath of the shootings, telephone and cell-phone lines jammed and hundreds of emergency and law-enforcement responders arrived on campus.

The university's primary Web page, for instance, received almost the same volume of information requests that day as it had during the system's busiest month.

"We will take whatever steps are needed to maintain the safety, confidence and peace of mind of our students, faculty and the entire Hokie community," President Charles W. Steger said.

The cost

The changes would cost untold millions of dollars, likely requiring new funding from the General Assembly, from fees assessed students, and from federal grants that will enhance counseling services, case management, and notification systems.

Mental-health coordination

Steger and other administrators said efforts are under way to better coordinate mental-health services a student might receive outside the school system with services available within the school system. A key recommendation would create special teams to monitor high-risk students. Would these measures have stopped Cho?

Steger and others said yesterday that the university stands by its decision not to immediately alert students about the shooting deaths of Cho's first two victims some two hours before most of his victims died.

Steger described the troubled gunman as a determined killer whose rampage might have been unpreventable, even if new surveillance techniques, threat-assessment teams and beefed-up counseling services had been in place.

"He was determined to commit murder, planned his crime meticulously and managed to conceal his homicidal urges from all of the law-enforcement authorities and the mental-health experts who tried to help him, and presumably even from his family," Steger said.

What's next?

Steger said the school would cooperate fully with any investigation of the shootings that is being sought by a Pennsylvania-based advocacy group that contends Virginia Tech did not provide timely warnings to students. Security on Campus Inc. petitioned the U.S. Department of Education this week, asking for an investigation.

The report precedes a more detailed analysis of the April 16 massacre and its underpinnings scheduled to be released next Thursday by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine.

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