Virginia Tech shooting spree

[expony18]

i would love to debate all night guys.... but my final brief is due in the morning and it needs some major editing.

[PK]

i would love to debate all night guys.... but my final brief is due in the morning and it needs some major editing.

I'm sure you will do very well...now that you have figured out how to spell "brief".

[EastStang]

The RA's and counselors at SMU were back in my day pretty well trained to spot a kid with problems. I remember one time, I had the flu and went out to the lobby of Boaz to get a Sprite out of the machine at 3 a.m. There was a guy in the lobby laughing histerically at the test pattern on television. I assumed that he'd taken some acid or something. Then I saw him throwing salad all over himself in the cafeteria a day or two later. I passed the word on to his RA. Shortly after that I heard the guy's parents had plucked him off campus and taken him to a psych hospital. Two things that people should remember, a college campus is a community. If someone is acting outside of the norms of merely strange, it is up to you to make sure that the people who need to know about it know about it. Whether its the dorm advisor, the R.A., or the Dean of Residence Life. The killer at VT gave out bunches of warning signs: writing graphic disturbing stories; refusing to go to counseling; wearing sunglasses in class; anger; defiance; lack of social skills. This isn't about mental health funding or gun control, this is about whether people who want to help a troubled person will care enough to do so and know who to tell. He had suite mates. He was banned from regular classes in the English Department because his stories were scarry.

[expony18]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18159262/

[SMU Football Blog]

Speaking of liablility, how about the head of the english department at VT violating this kid's privacy on every network that will have her?

[expony18]

so my "reliable source" who works for nbc, just informed me that the he sent to them an entire package of stuff (pictures, videos, notes, etc.) regarding what he did and why...

edit* here's some of it

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18169776/

[Stallion]

I'm not sure if the right of privacy like other privileges extends beyond death-and of course there is a general exception with privileges that they can not be used to protect information that might be used to conceal a crime or used in furtherance of a crime.

[mr. pony]

[quote="SMU Football Blog"]Speaking of liablility, how about the head of the english department at VT violating this kid's privacy on every network that will have her?[/quote]

You kind of blow your right to privacy all to hell when you murder 32 people in cold blood.

[mr. pony]

Worrying about "privacy" issues is why this kid was able to do this.

[expony18]

Speaking of liablility, how about the head of the english department at VT violating this kid's privacy on every network that will have her?

You kind of blow your right to privacy all to hell when you murder 32 people in cold blood.

not to mention he is no longer alive, and i dont think his estate will bring any actions, it might look kind of bad

[abezontar]

Anybody else heard the rumor that his parents did or attempted suicide when they found out?

[J.T.supporta]

a very sad tragedy. My Prayers and thoughts go out to all the victims and their families. May this bring us all together to realize that we shouldnt take the little things in life for granted.

[ponyfan84]

Not to be a [deleted], but you know what's crazy? This is shocking our nation because it's the worst shooting tragedy we've had....but in Iraq the other day, 183 people died in a bombing....and to them that's just another day! How incredible is that? To live every day in fear of getting blown up....

Did they release what the kid said in the manifesto he sent to NBC? I am actually curious to see what he said. It should shed some light as to why he did this.

Also, did anybody hear the story about a survivor who was shot 3 times (leg, butt, shoulder), and played dead to avoid getting shot? He was one of the last victims as moments after he got shot the last two times, the killer killed himself just a few feet away. Scary stuff. I would have played dead even if I wasn't injured.

[PK]

Did they release what the kid said in the manifesto he sent to NBC? I am actually curious to see what he said. It should shed some light as to why he did this.

Not to be flip, but just as a quick summary...the kid was mentally deranged/ill which is why he did it.

You are not going to hear or read a lucid reason for randomly killing 32 innocent people. The reason for the random killings by the nuts in Iraq are no more lucid than his. Whatever his or their individual reasonings might be...they are not reasonings that sane people would have.

[Longtime]

This tragedy has made me ponder how SMU's administration would have handled a similar incident, and whether SMU officials would have done anything differently.

Don't really have an answer, but I know that a small campus like SMU would be a lot easier to lock down, or at least monitor. Word would travel faster across a campus like SMU's. If there were an incident in one of the dorms, the people in classrooms are less likely to be unaware.

I'm sure SMU officials are also pondering how to handle such a crisis. Soon they will have an even bigger reason to be worried about an attack on the campus: the Bush Library. When that thing is built, it will be a giant bullseye for terrorists and other radicals who see Bush as the Great Devil. I certainly hope I'm wrong, but these are the type of people who hold grudges for a long, long time.