Posted: Tuesday, April 17, 2007 12:00 am
The authorities at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in Blacksburg, Va., will have to explain how a gunman could murder several people in one building on campus and then move about a half mile away and do the same thing in another place.
It may have something to do with poor communications compounded by the difficulties inherent in any unforeseen and violent event.
As always in such cases, college administrators around the country will be reviewing their own procedures and plans for responding in case such an attack is aimed at their schools. But even with the best of plans, it's not always possible to respond the right way because of shock and losing one's head when the emergency strikes.
Witness accounts from Virginia suggested that, for a long time, students there were left in the dark about what was going on. One of them said they were in their rooms surfing the Net trying to find out what was happening. It's just possible that a timely warning might have saved some lives.
The tendency of authorities in such cases seems to be to shut everything down and say as little as possible while things are sorted out. In light of the long delay in this case, and the subsequent loss of life, campus officials nationwide will want to make sure that they have a system for issuing an urgent and specific warning to all parts of their campuses right away. (hh)