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Parents, Students Keep Cell Towers Busy

April 16, 2007

By Jeffrey Simmons & Wayne Queseneberry, Media General News Service

The cell phone towers around Blacksburg must have been buzzing.

Anxious parents called students and students called parents throughout the day Monday as news spread of a deadly shooting on the Virginia Tech Campus. As of Monday afternoon, reports had the death toll at 31 with more injured.

Colene Pauley of Bland had already left her son, Nicholas, a message to call her Monday morning before she saw the Tech drama unfolding on television.

He called her back at around 10:30.

"He’s fine," she said of the 20-year-old Bland High School graduate and Tech sophomore.

According to the mother, Nicholas was in class in a building behind Norris Hall – one shooting site — when he and his fellow students were ordered to evacuate.

The calls between the family members have continued throughout the day, she said.

"I can’t imagine the panic in some of the parents trying to get through to them," Pauley said.

Doug Wilson of Rural Retreat spoke to his sons, Hunter and Eric, after hearing the news on the radio.

Eric Wilson was walking from his dorm to a 10 a.m. lab when he heard what sounded like a shot. At first, he thought the pop came from a nearby construction site.

That thought quickly changed, though.

"I heard sirens and people yelling and screaming," he said. According to the freshman, he saw people running away from the Norris Hall area with their hands in the air.

He returned to his dorm and was still under a lockdown Monday afternoon.

Even with Monday’s shooting, Wilson didn’t appear to be panicked.

"I’m not really worried," he said. "I feel pretty safe."

Stephanie Johnson of Bland was also confined to her dorm on Monday.

"It’s very, very nerve-racking waiting to hear," the freshman said. "With that many dead, there’s probably someone I know."

In a telephone interview from the Peddrew-Yates dormitory on the Tech campus, Johnson said that she was seeing police cars leaving the area around 2:15 p.m. She also noted that some of the dining rooms were opening and dorm restrictions had been eased.

"We’ve been in lockdown all day," Johnson said. "We’ve been eating out of the vending machines all day long and they’re about empty."

Johnson said the residents of her dorm were notified by e-mail early Monday that there had been an "unfortunate incident" and were asked to stay inside the building. She later learned of the shooting from television reports.

E-mails and cell phone calls, Johnson said, quickly followed. Several of her friends called to report they were OK and Johnson notified her parents that she was all right.

"One of my friends in Hancock said he had heard like 20 gunshots," she added.

Jeffrey Simmons and Wayne Queseneberry can be reached at 228-6611.