Guards at Commemoration

Guards from Virginia Tech's Corps of Cadets stand watch at the memorial site
while a photographer captures the scene. Photo taken prior to a University
Commemoration on the morning of April 16, 2008, A Day of Remembrance.


Photo by Brent Jesiek.


Licensed under Creative Commons
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Brent Jesiek

2008-04-28

Kacey Beddoes

Brent Jesiek (bjesiek@vt.edu)

eng

Guards at Commemoration

Guards from Virginia Tech&#39;s Corps of Cadets stand watch at the memorial site
prior to a University Commemoration on the morning of April 16, 2008, A Day of
Remembrance.


Photo by Brent Jesiek.


Licensed under Creative Commons
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/">Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0</a>

Brent Jesiek

2008-04-28

Kacey Beddoes

Brent Jesiek (bjesiek@vt.edu)

eng

Reporter

A reporter speaks with an attendee prior to a University Commemoration on the
morning of April 16, 2008, A Day of Remembrance.


Photo by Brent Jesiek.


Licensed under Creative Commons
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/">Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0</a>

Brent Jesiek

2008-04-28

Kacey Beddoes

Brent Jesiek (bjesiek@vt.edu)

eng

Guards

Guards from Virginia Tech&#39;s Corps of Cadets stand watch at the memorial site
prior to a University Commemoration on the morning of April 16, 2008, A Day of
Remembrance.


Photo by Brent Jesiek.


Licensed under Creative Commons
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/">Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0</a>

Brent Jesiek

2008-04-28

Kacey Beddoes

Brent Jesiek (bjesiek@vt.edu)

eng

A Day of Remembrance.

View of the drillfield prior to a University Commemoration on the morning of
April 16, 2008, A Day of Remembrance.


Photo by Brent Jesiek.


Licensed under Creative Commons
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/">Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0</a>

Brent Jesiek

2008-04-28

Kacey Beddoes

Brent Jesiek (bjesiek@vt.edu)

eng

On One Year Anniversary of VT, Many Move On But Remember

By Can Tran April 16, 2008

April 16, 2008, marks the one year anniversary of the Virginia Tech massacre as Korean student Cho Seung-hui in a fit of madness and depression went on a shooting rampage as he took the lives of thirty-two students and teachers on the Virginia Tech campus, before turning the gun on himself. This day would forever be engraved as a moment of darkness in the history of twenty-first century American let alone for Virginia Tech.

While a year has pasted with many working hard to move away from the dark incident, there are those that are still coping. Many have lost friends and family members in the Virginia Tech shooting.

Bryan Cloyd lost his daughter Austin, in the VT shooting. "I won&#39;t be able to walk my daughter down the aisle at her wedding. I won&#39;t be able to bounce her children on my knee," Bryan Cloyd said. He added: "And I don&#39;t think it&#39;s helpful to dwell on that, because where that leads is just more sadness. I think what&#39;s helpful to do is to dwell on what can be. What can we do with what we have?"

In the case of Cho, the one responsible for the shooting; there are no public memorials planned.

In related news, eight months after the Virginia Tech shooting, 21-year-old Korean student Daniel Kim had taken his own life. His father, William Kim, said that the school was not taking the warning signs of suicide that serious. In the case of Daniel Kim, he fell into state of depression out of fear that he could be mistaken for Cho Seung-hui.

The scars of the Virginia Tech shooting could extend towards South Korea, whose government had issued an apology for Cho&#39;s actions.

On an interesting note, the one year anniversary of the Virginia Tech shooting comes on the same day as the Democratic debate in Pennsylvania between Democratic frontrunners Senator Hillary Clinton of New York and Senator Barack Obama of Illinois. On that note, the hot button topic could be gun ownership rights.

In Pennsylvania, there are almost one-million licensed hunters. There are at least 250,000 registered members of the NRA living in the state of Pennsylvania, making it the one state with the largest number of members. However, there is at least one gun-related death a day in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For that reason, Philadelphia is known as "Killadelphia."

However, the issue of guns could possibly be overshadowed by "green jobs." The day of the April 22 Democratic primaries is the same day as Earth Day.


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Original Source:
<a href="http://www.groundreport.com/US/On-One-Year-Anniversary-of-VT-Many-Move-On-But-Rem">http://www.groundreport.com/US/On-One-Year-Anniversary-of-VT-Many-Move-On-But-Rem</a>

Can Tran

2008-04-19

Kacey Beddoes

eng

The intangible bond between two broken hearts

The post title isn&#39;t an exact quote (because it would&#39;ve been damn hard taking notes while trying to hold a lit candle (and, more importantly, given the windy conditions this evening, keeping it lit) from the remarks of NIU President John G. Peters at tonight&#39;s candlelight vigil at Northern Illinois University to honor the memory of the Hokies who lost their lives a year ago today. But they&#39;re a close approximation: I know he used both phrases in his speech, though I can&#39;t swear that they were that closely connected. Nevertheless, it&#39;s a good description for the relationship that will forevermore exist between our two campuses, our two communities.

We&#39;re both members of a club that nobody wants to join--and would to God that NIU and Virginia Tech were the last two ever given the opportunity to join it. We speak each other&#39;s language: a language that neither of us was looking to learn, and one that both of us would rather we hadn&#39;t had the opportunity to learn at all. But we have learned it, and having learnt it, we cannot--and should not--forget it.

The image is the design of the T-shirts that were handed out to the first 900 people who came to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Commons. I&#39;m happy to report that there weren&#39;t any shirts left that I could see, meaning we had at least that many people at the event.

Among them, God love them both, were two Virginia Tech students. They gave up the opportunity to be with their compatriots in Blacksburg at their own vigil today so they could come and support us--even as we tried to show our support for them and their fellow Hokies. Their presence is just the latest in a long line of expressions of support that Virginia Tech and its campus community have offered to us in the wake of our own tragedy two months ago--support for which we are eternally and profoundly grateful, and which we can never truly repay. Somehow, though, I don&#39;t think my Hokie brethren and sistren will mind.

Tonight&#39;s vigil was a concrete and physical reminder of a spiritual reality that my faith tradition has taught for centuries: that we are all one body, one family--and our destiny is to help one another along the road we each must travel from cradle to grave. Yes, Virginia, you are your brother&#39;s keeper--as I am yours. Or, as Jesus told his disciples in Matthew&#39;s Gospel:

Ὅταν δὲ ἔλθῃ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐν τῇ δόξῃ αὐτοῦ καὶ πάντες οἱ ἄγγελοι μετ&#39; αὐτοῦ, τότε καθίσει ἐπὶ θρόνου δόξης αὐτοῦ· καὶ συναχθήσονται ἔμπροσθεν αὐτοῦ πάντα τὰ ἔθνη, καὶ ἀφορίσει αὐτοὺς ἀπ&#39; ἀλλήλων, ὥσπερ ὁ ποιμὴν ἀφορίζει τὰ πρόβατα ἀπὸ τῶν ἐρίφων, καὶ στήσει τὰ μὲν πρόβατα ἐκ δεξιῶν αὐτοῦ, τὰ δὲ ἐρίφια ἐξ εὐωνύμων. τότε ἐρεῖ ὁ βασιλεὺς τοῖς ἐκ δεξιῶν αὐτοῦ· δεῦτε οἱ εὐλογημένοι τοῦ πατρός μου, κληρονομήσατε τὴν ἡτοιμασμένην ὑμῖν βασιλείαν ἀπὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου. ἐπείνασα γὰρ καὶ ἐδώκατέ μοι φαγεῖν, ἐδίψησα καὶ ἐποτίσατέ με, ξένος ἤμην καὶ συνηγάγετέ με, γυμνὸς καὶ περιεβάλετέ με, ἠσθένησα καὶ ἐπεσκέψασθέ με, ἐν φυλακῇ ἤμην καὶ ἤλθατε πρός με. τότε ἀποκριθήσονται αὐτῷ οἱ δίκαιοι λέγοντες· κύριε, πότε σε εἴδομεν πεινῶντα καὶ ἐθρέψαμεν, ἢ διψῶντα καὶ ἐποτίσαμεν; πότε δέ σε εἴδομεν ξένον καὶ συνηγάγομεν, ἢ γυμνὸν καὶ περιεβάλομεν; πότε δέ σε εἴδομεν ἀσθενοῦντα ἢ ἐν φυλακῇ καὶ ἤλθομεν πρός σε; καὶ ἀποκριθεὶς ὁ βασιλεὺς ἐρεῖ αὐτοῖς· ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, ἐφ&#39; ὅσον ἐποιήσατε ἑνὶ τούτων τῶν ἐλαχίστων, ἐμοὶ ἐποιήσατε.

Whenever the Son of Man may come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon the throne of his glory: and all the nations will be gathered together in his presence, and he shall divide them one from another just as a shepherd divides the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep upon his right hand, and the goats upon his left. Then will the Ruler say to those upon his right: "Come here, you who are blessed of my Father; inherit the realm that was prepared for you before the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; thirsty, and you gave me to drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me, naked, and you clothed me. I was ill and you looked after me, in prison, and you came to me."

Then the just will reply to him, saying: "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and come to you?"

And the Ruler will say to them in answer, "Amen I tell you, as often as you did it for one of these the least of my brothers or my sisters, you did it for me."

--Matthew 25:31-40, my translation from the original Greek

The campus community of Virginia Tech has lived out that Gospel pericope. Tonight&#39;s vigil was one small downpayment on NIU&#39;s attempt to do so. It will not be the last, I&#39;m sure. Nor should it be.

22:13 in NIU, Personal | Permalink

Story by Michael Spires.


Licensed under Creative Commons
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Original Source:
<a href="http://musing85.typepad.com/blog/2008/04/the-intangible.html">http://musing85.typepad.com/blog/2008/04/the-intangible.html</a>

Michael Spires

2008-04-19

Kacey Beddoes

eng

On Virginia Tech anniversary, Saugus mom lobbies for changes

By Mike Gaffney
GateHouse News Service
Posted Apr 16, 2008 @ 01:37 PM

SAUGUS —

A year after she lost her son Ross in the Virginia Tech shootings, Lynnette Alameddine is fighting for legislation that would require universities to issue campus emergency notifications in 30 minutes or less.

Wednesday marked the first anniversary of the massacre at Virginia Tech. One of the 33 victims of the deadliest school shooting in this country&#39;s history was Ross Alameddine, 20, a Saugus resident and college sophomore known for his sharp wit and uncanny ability to make people laugh.

In a recent interview, Lynnette Alameddine declined to reflect upon Ross&#39;s death and its affect on her family for personal reasons.

But she found the courage during an emotionally draining week to talk about the causes she is championing so other parents do not have to experience the same heartbreak.

Over the last few months Alameddine has been working closely with Security on Campus Inc., a nonprofit organization committed to improving student safety at institutions of higher learning.

Security on Campus wants to strengthen the Jeanne Clery Act that requires colleges to warn their campuses about crimes that present ongoing threats in a "timely" manner.

The problem with the federal legislation, Alameddine explained, is the act fails to define what "timely" means. As a result, warnings are sometimes issued many hours after a university becomes aware of an emergency, or even the next day.

History shows that colleges do not always follow the guidelines of the Clery Act. Alameddine mentioned one particularly troublesome case at Eastern Michigan University when a coed was found raped and murdered in a residence hall, but officials issued a statement that no foul play was suspected in her death.

Alameddine and Security on Campus hope Congress revises the Clery Act so universities must initiate a warning process within 30 minutes of an emergency being confirmed.

Thus far Alameddine said a bill has been introduced at the House to include the 30-minute time limit in the renewed Higher Education Amendments of 2008, but no such clause exists in the legislation being worked on at the Senate level.

"There has been a lot of resistance from university presidents who don&#39;t feel they can complete the notifications in that amount of time," Alameddine said.

Mere minutes can mean the difference between life and death when a threat of a shooter surfaces on a college campus, Alameddine pointed out. In the case of the Virginia Tech Tragedy, two hours passed between the discovery of the shooter&#39;s first two victims in a dormitory and when the university sent out its alert.

Alameddine traveled to Washington, D.C., recently to share her concerns with an advisor on Sen. Edward Kennedy&#39;s staff and the vice president of Security on Campus. Her daughter, Yvonne, has become the president on Facebook for the Students for Emergency Warnings in 30 Minutes or Less.

A decision on the specific language included in the Higher Education Amendments is expected by the end of the month.

With this looming deadline in mind, the Alameddines are encouraging the public to call or e-mail their senators to request they support the mandatory campus warning provision of 30 minutes or less. For more information on this cause, log on to www.securityoncampus.org.

"I think this has the potential to prevent tragedies from happening," Alameddine said. "It is shocking that colleges and universities don&#39;t notify people about emergencies on campus."
Advocating gun control

Another concern of Alameddine&#39;s is how easy it can be to secure a firearm. Earlier this month she attended a gala in the nation&#39;s capital sponsored by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, an organization that strives to enact and enforce sensible gun laws.

The gala featured a special tribute to the survivors and families affected by the Virginia Tech shooting. Also honored was Abby Spangler, a Virginia native and staunch gun control supporter affiliated with the Web site www.protesteasyguns.com.

After the Virginia Tech shootings, Spangler took it upon herself to hold a silent protest expressing outrage over the senseless loss of human life. The movement eventually evolved into a phenomenon culminating with the National Lie-In.

On April 16, the grassroots group organized 80 lie-ins in 31 states. To honor the memory of the Virginia Tech victims, Alameddine said each protest involved 32 people — signifying the number of students and teachers killed by shooter Cho Seung-Hui — who dressed in black with Virginia Tech colors and laid down for three minutes.

"That&#39;s how long it takes someone to get a gun in this country," Alameddine said.

Several lie-ins were held in the Boston area, including a silent protest organized at Simmons College by Katie McKendrey, a close friend of Ross Alameddine&#39;s.

From the research she has conducted, Alameddine said it is alarming how effortless it is for people to purchase guns. She hopes to close the existing loophole that allows private dealers at gun shows to sell firearms to customers without conducting a background check.

According to statistics collected by www.protesteasyguns.com, approximately 40 percent of sales at the 5,000 gun shows held every year in this country are made by unlicensed sellers who aren&#39;t required to perform background checks.

At last count 35 states had yet to close this loophole. Alameddine is convinced the time has come to take action and close the loophole so the guns used in crimes no longer find their way into the wrong hands.

Although Alameddine acknowledged the need to respect the rights of the National Rifle Association, she said precautions should be taken so firearms are kept away from dangerous individuals and off college campuses.

Gun control laws differ considerably from state to state, which Alameddine noted can lead to troubling circumstances where common sense isn&#39;t always taken into account. For example, she expressed concern over finding out some universities allow students to carry concealed weapons on campus.


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Original Source:
<a href="http://www.patriotledger.com/archive/x883016434">http://www.patriotledger.com/archive/x883016434</a>

Mike Gaffney

2008-04-19

Kacey Beddoes

eng

Local colleges reflect on Va. Tech shootings

By Peter Reuell/Daily News staff
The MetroWest Daily News
Posted Apr 16, 2008 @ 12:35 AM

ASHLAND —

A year after the shooting massacre that left 33 people dead at Virginia Tech, security remains a concern on local college campuses.

On campuses from Framingham to Franklin, officials said, the aftershocks of the shooting - and a more recent incident at Northern Illinois University, which left five others dead - are still being felt.

After the April 16, 2007, killings at Virginia Tech, many schools quickly re-evaluated their security plans, particularly their ability to communicate with faculty and staff in a crisis.

At many, including Framingham State College, the solution was to install a system that allows administrators to send emergency messages by phone and computer to the entire campus at the touch of a button.

"You learn from the incident, and it allows you to, perhaps, make changes in your own systems," said Framingham State spokesman Peter Chisholm.

The school later this month plans to finish installing a siren that will alert students, faculty and staff to campuswide emergencies.

"At every college or university campus in the country, I&#39;m sure, the president and public safety administrators sat down and reviewed what they had in place, and what improvements they could make," Chisholm said.

The incident that sparked those meetings happened a year ago today in Blacksburg, Va.

Just after 7 a.m., disturbed Virginia Tech student Seung-Hui Cho killed two students in a dormitory, then went on a shooting rampage in a classroom building, eventually killing 32 people and himself.

At Massachusetts Bay Community College in Wellesley, administrators are close to installing a campuswide notification system similar to Framingham State&#39;s. They have held numerous meetings to review the school&#39;s crisis policies.

"There&#39;s a method or protocol for just about every situation that could arise on campus," said Lisa Cascio, the school&#39;s director of communications and public affairs. "When something like this happens, every campus across the country feels vulnerable."

Along with an emergency communications system, Franklin&#39;s Dean College officials rely on an emergency alarm, which alerts everyone on campus to emergencies.

"We&#39;ve trained everybody to know - students, faculty and staff - if you hear that alarm, that means check your text messages," said Pat Samson, director of public relations and communications.

"I think incidents like these, it&#39;s not that it raised the priority. I think it refocused attention," she added. "We want to make sure everything is up to date.

"I think it sharpens the focus. (Safety) is in the top three things, so it&#39;s always on the minds of the college&#39;s administrators, and the families and the students. When these events happen, things just come more sharply into focus."

(Peter Reuell can be reached at 508-626-4428 or preuell@cnc.com.)


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Original Source:
<a href="http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x489723324">http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x489723324</a>

Peter Reuell

2008-04-19

Kacey Beddoes

eng

Tragedy sparks memories and change

By Jeff Gilbride/Daily News staff
Daily News Tribune
Posted Apr 15, 2008 @ 12:43 AM

WALTHAM —

A year ago Wednesday, Kalynn Cook&#39;s childhood friend was killed when Seung-Hui Cho opened fire on the Virginia Tech campus.

To mark the first anniversary and to remember her friend, Erin Peterson, the Brandeis freshman from Sterling, Va., planned a candlelight vigil for tomorrow night.

"I&#39;m from northern Virginia and I came up here for school. When it got to be April I knew that the one-year anniversary would be coming up. I looked at the Brandeis calendar of events and I noticed there wasn&#39;t anything scheduled," she said. "I decided to talk to some of my friends who happen to be involved in student activism. They suggested I host an event myself."

Cook said she contacted the student organization Democracy for America, which helped organize the event.

Starting at 7 p.m. tomorrow, students will read a biography of each person killed in the massacre, hold a prayer service and conduct an open forum to discuss the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history.

Cho cut down his victims in two attacks two hours apart before the university could grasp what was happening and warn students. The bloodbath ended with the gunman committing suicide.

Thirty-two individual flames will be lit, one for each of the victims.

"(Democracy for America) handles activism. I went to one of their meetings and they decided to sponsor me. I got some materials from them and I got some advice," she said. "I spoke to Father Walter Cuenin (a Brandeis chaplain) and he&#39;s going to be speaking at the vigil ... it doesn&#39;t just affect the Virginia Tech community, but college communities all over the nation."

Since the killings, Brandeis University officials adopted a number of precautionary measures to ensure the safety of students.

"Certainly Virginia Tech marked a very significant turning point for us wanting to look for as many measures to help best inform people on campus on what to do in the event of an emergency," said Brandeis spokesman Dennis Nealon "It&#39;s all a work in progress to address emergency warning issues."

Nealon said Brandeis officials instituted a number of precautionary communication measures under what is now referred to as the Brandeis Emergency Notification System.

One step was to place towers around campus that serve as warning sirens in case of an emergency.

"The intention of the sirens is to tell people to go indoors and to proceed to get whatever information they need about what the particular emergency is," Nealon said. "Another step was that every land (line) phone on campus was equipped with a small video screen."

Nealon said the video screens can display a written notice or audible message in case of an emergency.

"We&#39;ll inform people that an emergency situation has developed and we&#39;ll tell them what steps to take," he said. "We also have an 80 percent voluntary response from students to our initiative to gather as many cell phone numbers as we could. The university now can send text messages directly to people&#39;s cell phones."

Bentley College in Waltham also uses a similar campus alert system, through a program called "Connect-Ed." Bentley spokeswoman Michelle Walsh said the school collected cell phone numbers from almost the entire college community to send out a text message or voice mail message in case of an emergency.

Walsh said Bentley College had taken most of these precautionary measures before the Virginia Tech massacre. He said the incident caused campus officials to review existing communications and security.

Bentley College has a crisis planning team comprised of staff and students that meets twice a month. The team holds "tabletop drills," in which they map out scenarios of potential emergencies and discuss how to deal with them.

"The crisis planning team meets twice a month and has been well before the Virginia Tech tragedy. Following the tragedy was a review of what would happen if we had an equivalent situation," Walsh said. "I think the most important thing is our crisis planning team works closely with the campus police ... you learn from every school (tragedy). If a school meets regularly, the better prepared they are, no matter what the situation."

Unlike their counterparts at Bentley, Brandeis University Police officers are unarmed, a practice that is expected to change this summer. Last year, Brandeis President Jehuda Reinharz announced he accepted a recommendation of an eight-member university firearms panel to equip Brandeis Police with guns.

"An advisory committee (was) formed initially of faculty and students to look at the issue in light of the Virginia Tech tragedy," Nealon said. "That committee gave a yes-vote to the president (that the police should be armed)."

Nealon said the tragedy reignited the topic of arming Brandeis Police, which was discussed randomly in previous years.

"The Virginia Tech tragedy did spur that discussion again," Nealon said. "About 20 officers have been undergoing field and psychological training. ... They are all being certified at the state police academy in Massachusetts."

Jeff Gilbride can be reached at 781-398-8005 or at jgilbrid@cnc.com


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Original Source:
<a href="http://www.dailynewstribune.com/homepage/x818433112">http://www.dailynewstribune.com/homepage/x818433112</a>

Jeff Gilbride

2008-04-19

Kacey Beddoes

eng