Every one of us hopes that, in a crisis, our university’s security measures will come through and help mitigate the threat posed to students, faculty and staff. That hope was snuffed out for many Virginia Tech students following the infamous 2007 shooting, and the Department of Education is trying to send campus officials a message with a $55,000 fine in return.
The two-hour delay the university took in notifying the campus about the killer is inexcusable.
In the time it took university officials to compose and send an email vaguely warning about two murders in a dormitory, the shooter had made his way into a campus classroom and was preparing to kill 30 more people. In fact, the email merely mentioned a shooting on campus, omitting the fact that the victims had died while their murderer was nowhere to be found.
In the face of such depressing facts, you might think the university would tuck its tail between its legs, accept the fine and promise something like the tragedy will never happen again on its campus.
You’d be wrong.
Instead, the university is appealing the fine in an attempt to dodge the blame for the 32 people killed that day. No, officials didn’t pull the trigger, but an earlier and more honest warning was warranted and may have helped saved some of lives lost.
It’s disgusting how far a public relations battle can go, especially considering that we’d rather go to a university that admits and makes efforts to right its wrongs rather than one that tries to sidestep the consequences of its actions.
