Response to killings show Hokie spirit
By CHARLEY REESE
Published Thursday, May 3, 2007
I predict that applications for admission to Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., are going to increase considerably as a result of the television coverage of the shootings by a deranged student.
Paradoxically, the coverage of the tragedy revealed a university and a community at their very best. Administrators, faculty, students, police and medical personnel responded competently and heroically. The spirit shown by the students is outstanding. The more I watched, the more I thought how great it would be to be part of the “Hokie Nation.” If I were college age, I’d think seriously about attending that school.
Students and faculty facing the murderous gunman, though naturally frightened, acted heroically. One professor held the door against the gunman as his students escaped. Shots fired through the door killed him. In two other classrooms, students themselves barred the door and kept the gunman out. In one of those cases, the students holding the door had already been shot.
Equally as impressive was that not one of the numerous interviews with students revealed any sniveling or self-pity. The students uniformly showed compassion for their fellow students and faculty members. If they wept, it was for others. They not only maintained their dignity in the face of the tragic murders of 32 people, but also in the face of an army of international media that descended on them. And their overwhelming support and obvious affection for Virginia Tech is something I’ve never seen before. These weren’t sports fans; these were students who loved their school and what so many of them described as the Hokie spirit.
Virginia Tech has a beautiful campus, and the small town of Blacksburg is itself both beautiful and friendly. The violence began at 7:15 a.m. on April 16. After a two-hour gap during which the gunman apparently was holed up in his dormitory room, it resumed, but it was over by 10:15 a.m., when he committed suicide as police were closing in on him.
I don’t know of a better recommendation for an administration. These folks were able to handle the mass murder and the influx of the media people and arrange a convocation with the governor and the president in attendance the very next day. The logistics of such an event are staggering. At the same time, the student government arranged a candlelight vigil that was attended by thousands of students, faculty and townspeople. That reflects not only administrative competence but a spirit of community that all of us can envy.
The staffs of local hospitals, overwhelmed with volunteers, did a superb job of handling the wounded and won high praise from parents for their compassion and competence.
As for danger to students, we have to face the fact that insanity happens. Despite a lot of psychobabble about “warning signs,” predicting human behavior is virtually impossible. Laws make it extremely difficult to commit someone involuntarily to a mental institution.
Treatment for psychiatric disorders is itself problematic. Much was made of the graphic violence in this boy’s writings, but they were no more graphic and bizarre than the violence put on the screen by Quentin Tarantino and his ilk.
What happened at Virginia Tech could happen on any university campus or at any other place. It is rare, but it happens. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Virginia Tech to any of my loved ones. After all, if tragedy must occur, better that it occurs at a place where there is such a tremendous spirit of camaraderie and compassion to overcome its effects.
Unexpectedly, while watching mass murder occur, the Hokies made me proud to be an American.
They showed themselves to be the kind of people you’d want around you in a bad situation.
http://archive.columbiatribune.com/2007/may/20070503comm002.asp