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It began last Halloween when two Penn State University students, a male and a female, dressed up as April 16 victims.
The costumes drew national attention, raising questions of compassion, citizen's rights, privacy and media's role in society.
"The whole purpose of the costume wasn't meant to hurt anybody. It wasn't meant to be seen by anybody. It wasn't meant to be published," said Nathan Jones, the male student, in an interview with WSLS news station's Lindsay Henley.
He went on to say he and his friends routinely dress up in controversial costumes each Halloween, intending to shock and be seen by only those present. Nearly a month later, the photos surfaced on Facebook, a Web site that has had its own share of privacy issues.
Ken Stanton, a Tech engineering education graduate student, is now the administrator of the group on Facebook called "People Against This Costume." He said that the original administrator resigned due to a large number of harassing e-mails asserting that the creator was only making the situation worse by taking it public.
Stanton took over as administrator for the group and has tried to take an understanding approach to the controversy.
"At first, I was upset just like everyone else, and I said, 'How can I understand how these people could do this?'" Stanton said. "It just made me realize it was not a personal attack on us or on the victims."
Stanton immediately took down the photos and added his own personal statement urging the community to forgive and rise above the actions of the PSU students.
Jessica Maroclo, the female student, issued a public apology via e-mail to WSLS, as well as provided prompt condolences to everyone who sent her emails.
"I am deeply and sincerely sorry. I am sorry for hurting the families of the victims, Virginia Tech students, Penn State students, and my family and friends. Sorry," she wrote.
Jones refused to apologize and cites his right to freedom of speech and expression, saying he does not see the wrong in his actions and should not have to censor himself.
Others, however, did take offense.
On Dec. 13, 2007, Bank of America fired him from his job. The student then posted his costume on eBay, but eBay removed the costume from its Web site shortly thereafter.
Neither Jones nor Maroclo agreed to comment, as both of them claimed to receive harassing e-mails, some from Tech students, and some even life threatening. However, many Tech students and interested citizens are beginning to move past the situation.
"I got 40 or 50 messages saying, 'Thank you for toning this down,'" Stanton said. "I also got a letter from a Penn State official personally thanking me."
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Umm, this is reallllllly old news?! Way to fuel the fire. He lost his job like 3 weeks ago?! If not more, it was actually right around Christmas I think.
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He lost his job 7 weeks ago. I read this story on PSU's student newspaper site Dec. 15. News doesn't reach Blacksburg fast enough, apparently.
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If you want to see what over 75,000 PSU students and fans did for VT, watch this. It is much more newsworthy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBrFAaUQoVk
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In the CT's defense, when they called me for comments they were very hesitant about running the article. The point to be taken is that doing irresponsible things can cost you, and not apologizing can really cost you. Well, besides the learning lessons posted on my Facebook group. Thanks for reading :)
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What a joke. Do we all feel so much better now? How about we concentrate on Virginia Tech contined lack of spending in ways to better take care of the student body. They KNEW Cho had major issues but did very little to deal with it. Then the suicide... how many warning signs did that student show? When is tech going to get with the program and when is Steger going to actually do something to earn some of that ridiculous salary he gets?
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How much more can the university really do. The measures they've already taken are seen really as an inconvenience rather than a protective measure. The events of April 16, in my opinion, could probably definitely happen again but the thing is that they could happen anywhere, not just here. As for the university taking steps to correct the problem, they can only do so much before what they're doing are taken as invasion of privacy. If you really feel they're not doing enough then you obviously don't feel safe here. If that's the case then why are you attending still? Also, President Steger works very hard fulfilling the duties his job entails and that criticism was undue.
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"If you really feel they're not doing enough then you obviously don't feel safe here. If that's the case then why are you attending still?" -- Yeah, if you don't feel safe, you should drop out of school. LOGICAL. Then you can get a crappy job where you cannot afford to live in the safer part of any given town/city, and live with it for the rest of your life, not to mention giving up your education and your dreams. Good suggestion, sounds like more of the "tuck tail and run" mentality. Look around, some groups on this campus are working to make it a safer place WITHOUT costing the University a dime.
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'Serious?,' your logic makes sense if, and ONLY if, ones feeling of lack of safety at Virginia Tech would extend directly to a fear of lack of safety at ANY school. And even then, it becomes a personal choice anyway - I have an uncle who is tremendously successful as an auto mechanic who went to trade school. You might consider his job 'crappy,' but I know for sure that he doesn't and that he very likely makes more money than I could ever hope to make. Your opportunities in life come from what YOU make of the options given to you - for many people, college may be an option but a less viable one than other choices. Now, legally, the fact that VT 'knew' that Cho was 'dangerous' isn't really relevant. My understanding is that VT 'knew' that his professors thought he was a weird guy. Being a weird guy isn't a crime - being generally unlikable isn't a crime - spending all of your time by yourself isn't a crime. Being depressed isn't even a crime. The fact that he went on a shooting rampage was, to put it lightly, unfortunate, and is something for which he bears total moral culpability. But you can't seriously look to the VT administration and say "you knew he was gonna do this" because they didn't know any such thing. Stop trying to levy blame on other people for April 16 and instead realize that there wasn't anything outside of the token security 'improvements' that have been made since which could have prevented such an event from occurring.
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Kyle, I think you misread my comments. But first, I will agree with your first statement - however seeing as VT has a very low crime rate (excluding April) it would be unlikely one would feel safer than here. Beyond that, I didn't intend to imply that other jobs are 'crappy' but rather that statistically college graduates make more and live in safer areas than the alternative. Overall, the point is that it's unreasonable to drop out of school just because crime exists on/near the campus. I'm not sure where the rest of the commentary came from, as I had no comments on the admin, maybe another post? My last comment was referring to a concealed carry group that's growing here. If legislation allows carry, it won't cost the university anything and criminals would want to think twice about coming onto campuses to find defenseless victims.
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