Campus Crisis Boils Down to Negligence

It’s finally happened. Columbine? The University of Texas? They are nothing compared to what happened yesterday.

Thirty-three people dead, including the shooter, in two separate shootings at Virginia Tech. And for what?

That’s something that investigators will have to figure out.

But anyone who’s been a college student knows there are two possible reasons for a shooting of that caliber.

One is political protest. But given that the shooter was Asian and not of Arab or Muslim descent, that is unlikely. However, it can not be ruled out.

The second, and more common reason for violence of that magnitude, is classmate ridicule or injustice. The shooter was either mocked by fellow students or had some kind of discrepancy with the staff.

But in either case, this incident highlights the rather lax security on college campuses across the country, not just VA Tech.

The first shooting occurred shortly after 7 a.m. in a dorm and was considered to be a domestic dispute by officials.

The Virginia Tech campus was not put into lockdown until two hours after two people were killed in that shooting.

Then, 15 minutes after that email was sent out, the carnage erupted in Norris Hall across campus at 9:45 a.m.

For 30 minutes, the 6-foot tall Asian gunman walked calmly in an out of classrooms, leaving an uninterrupted trail of carnage. 30 people were killed before he took his own life. He even chained the exits to prevent escape, according to police.

As a former campus-dwelling student, I was horrified at the way the Virginia Tech staff responded to this travesty. And honestly, I believe the same lackluster police response would have happened on my campus at Central Connecticut State University as well as several other campuses across the country.

Warning students two hours after any kind of shooting is unacceptable; and the fact that the shooter was able to continue his rampage for a half an hour is absurd.

By waiting that amount of time, campus officials allowed the rest of that brutal rampage to take place. Their efforts to contain and handle the case themselves lead to the deaths of over 30 people.

What’s to stop this from happening at other colleges? Nothing. And believe me, most college campuses are ripe with disturbed students waiting for something to push them over the edge.

There is absolutely no security in many classroom buildings and few alternate exits, which makes those buildings a shooting gallery for any disturbed individual with a gun. This is generally because most classroom buildings are old and are low priority to campus revitalization efforts.

Thus more security measures need to be put in place there. But beyond that, the true resolution to a crisis like this resides within the student body.

I’ve seen students ridiculed by other students to the point of uncontrollable anger. Though none of them actually harmed anyone, the seeds of a potential disaster were there.

It seems officials look toward preventing extreme circumstances like a shooting, but never look to head the problem off at the source.

A couple of things can be done to aid avoid these circumstances.

College applications, like job applications, should be denied if a student has a criminal record or a history of psychological problems. True, this would prevent a perhaps redeeming education to certain problematic individuals. But how else are we to protect ourselves from the otherwise corrupt? How long before the next disgruntled student turns one of our educational institutions into a graveyard?

Granted not all problems are caught by a simple application screening; but it’s a start.

The other thing that needs to be done is an increased security presence, especially in classroom buildings. These are the most used buildings on the entire campus and virtually anyone from off the street could walk into them.

Though more security measures are unpopular with the student body and relatively seen as a restriction to rights and freedom, the only other alternative could be to end up in a body bag.

But perhaps the most important thing students could do themselves is think twice about relentlessly ridiculing students. That will never happen; but all it takes is a little kindness.

It could be all that stands between life and death.