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Students Describe 'Unreal' Hours

April 17, 2007

By John Packett & Paul Woody

BLACKSBURG — Remmie Arnold needed just one sentence to sum up the range of emotions he and practically every student on the Virginia Tech campus felt Monday night.

"I'm sad, upset, shocked, surprised, angry and disappointed," said the 20-year-old junior from Chesterfield County.

"I'm angry and disappointed that someone out there would do something like this, take so many people's lives," Arnold said.

Absorbing all that had happened Monday was difficult for the students and will remain so for some time to come.

"I don't think classes are going to resume as normal until next week," said Arnold, a graduate of Thomas Dale High School. "And for those particular classes [where the shootings took place] that had these students in it, it wouldn't seem out of question for their classes to be canceled for the semester.

"Everyone's reporting that this is the most tragic event that's ever happened, so you don't have anything to compare it to. For me, it hasn't fully set in yet. It will set in here in a day or two."

Arnold was in P.K.'s Restaurant and Bar on Main Street, just across from an entrance to the campus. He and a number of other students had gathered there after a day of watching hour after hour of the news regarding their school.

Their goal was to think about something other than this tragedy.

Several miles away, Jeri Brooks and Stephanie Feinberg, freshmen at Tech, were heading into the New River Mall.

"We just wanted to get out and get away from the situation," Feinberg said.

To others, the situation was overwhelming and unnerving.

Aaron Lavinka, a junior from Chester, said he knew one of the students who was shot but she was apparently OK after undergoing surgery.

"I heard from a buddy of mine that a friend had been shot," Lavinka said. "I've known her ever since I got here. She was in Norris Hall somewhere. She was shot in the back, but I've been told she's going to make a full recovery. But for a while I didn't know if she was going to live or die. That's unreal, to find out somebody you know and see and go to class with and say hello to has been shot.

"All I knew for hours was that she had been shot and may be dying. Some people were going from wounded to dying. That's unbelieveable."

Lavinka said: "People were sending me instant messages and e-mails. Some of the people I hadn't talked to in years. They wanted to know, 'Hey, are you OK?' That kind of stuff. It was kind of special the way people were reaching out to you, even though you hadn't talked to them in a long time, to see if you were all right.

"It was just so shocking to have something like this happen here. This kind of thing just doesn't happen here at all."

Now, the students will try to return their lives to normal. But they know it will be difficult.

"Until we know the list of names, we're trying not to worry about it," Brooks said. "It's tough because we know a lot of people who know people who were in Norris at the time. They're all worried and they're all visiting people in hospitals."

Brooks and Feinberg are roommates. They knew Ryan Clark, the resident adviser who was one of the first victims Monday.

"I was in marching band with him," Brooks said. "His nickname is 'Stacks.' He played the baritone horn. I didn't know him that well, but he always said, 'Hi.' He always was happy."

Feinberg said, "All of us are in a state of shock. How did this happen? We don't know anything, and that's the hard part. I think that as soon as we all get together, unite, we'll be able to get over this. We're a strong-spirited school. We'll all stick together."

Brooks said, "We'll all get over it eventually. But it will stay in our hearts forever."

Contact staff writer John Packett at jpackett@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6313.

Contact staff writer Paul Woody at pwoody@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6444.