“The reality is that we really don’t train people to look for warning signs,” Kenny said, “and we don’t train them to act on warning signs, and we don’t provide the right mechanisms for them to report them.”
According to Shoemaker, it is a struggle to achieve the right balance between missing early warning signs preceding a violent crime and paranoia of everyday behavior.
“You don’t often think of that leading to what happened in Texas,” Shoemaker said. “The dots aren’t always connected, because you don’t always assume that if somebody says something, that in the years from years from now they’re going to go out and kill 10 people. That just isn’t normally done.”
Shoemaker and Kenny both said Tech had made considerable progress, however, in building up its capacity to prevent violence and push for a safer campus.
The threat assessment team, for example, is working to set up an early warning process. When someone experiences a potentially dangerous situation, he would have numbers to contact relating to that concern. It is the kind of program Shoemaker emphasized was essential to “connect the dots.”
“I was very, very impressed with what I saw down at Virginia Tech,” Kenny said. “A lot of these programs are relatively young, but you’re doing the right things.”
However, doing the right things does not guarantee 100 percent success, Shoemaker said.
“Even if something were to happen in the future, it would not be entirely a necessary indication that we failed somewhere,” Shoemaker said.
Kenny expected in a few years that people are going to focus not just on April 16, but the measures taken in reaction to the shootings.
“We’re going to be coming to you for leadership,” Kenny said.
Students for Non-Violence, the student-led offshoot of the peace center, is already working on teaming up with the Residence Hall Federation to lead a film series for younger students on campus to learn about violence prevention.
Another item on its agenda is choosing the speaker for the third Day of Remembrance on April 16, 2010.
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Granted, we have had a string of bad luck this semester. However, like most stupid generalizations (in the Spring, it was "Asian" killers) it doesn't hold up under scrutiny. John Allen Muhammed's execution yesterday was a reminder that violence has no boundries (VA-DC-MD). How about lower Manhattan for bad luck...two World Trade Center attacks and Wall Street banks go kaput within 14 years. UVA may have a problem in Charlottesville (do kidnappers check student IDs) or is this a Virginia curse?
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Nah, not mass murderers, just alcoholics.
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The point about alcoholics is a good one.
Why are Tech students "apparently" drinking more.
Are you stressing about the murders and seeking medication and counseling from a bottle or illegal drugs?
Or are the cops just more vigilant and have you on surveillance cameras everywhere you go?
SWVA does have the highest suicide rate per capita. around 20% I believe compared to around 7% in NOVA.
Please love yourselves and take care of body and mind. No shame in getting help and staying healthy and alive. Means your smart and man or woman enough to seek and ask for help. Maturity.
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Perhaps you intended something different, but 20% per capita doesn't make any sense, and there's no chance that 20% of people are committing suicide.
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An average of 813 Virginia residents die by suicide each year. In 2007, the Southwest region had the highest suicide rate at 22.7 per 100,000, while the Northern region had the lowest rate at 8.8.
http://vaperforms.virginia.gov/indicators/healthFamily/suicide.php
Read stats for yourself please to get best picture from Gov't website and data
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22.7 per 100,000 is 0.0227%
that's about a thousand times lower than the 20% figure given by Warning Signs.
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Which is not 20% it is .0227% which was his point. If it was 20% then 20000 people out of 100000 would have commited suicide.
That would be a problem indeed.
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Darn you Sam...
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uhhh no. we are drinking because we are in college, u silly person you.
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silly does.
I'm alive and have been for than twice as many years as most of the students at VT.
I do have some where and rust issues, but I'm still here. Never been in jail, but have had the gov't try to harass and deny my rights, along with other "silly" people.
Now I see my country "land that I love" being taken over by "evil" "ruthless" minds.
Just trying make a few inexperienced skulls think and ask questions.
Gain wisdom also why you are in college. Some learn with pain and suffering and trial and error. Others, well not so much.....
That's how the chaff is separated from the grain.
Chaff (pronounced /tf/[1] or /tf/) is the inedible, dry, scaly protective casings of the seeds of cereal grain, or similar fine, dry, scaly plant material such as scaly parts of flowers, or finely chopped straw. In agriculture chaff is used as livestock fodder, or is a waste material ploughed into the soil or burnt.
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First, a mere 10 minutes spent online searching for College and University Crime; specifically Murder - the numbers on college campuses across the nation will take your breath away, Va Tech is not much different. Students come, their guard is down, they 'think' they are in a remote area, and all is safe. Not true.
Add to this that VT draws students from every continent and those students bring with them their family problems, cultural views and different way of dealing with problems.
Finally, while we are fortunate to sit in a beautiful landscape, the Blacksburg-Radford-Christiansburg MSA is home to roughly 180,000
residents (not exactly small) and adjacent to the Roanoke SMSA with another 275,000...so you find yourself in an area with nearly one-half-million residents and in that is 'urban crime'. Now, is Tech a magnate for bad folks looking for easy prey? Could be - due to the first reasons mentioned.
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What is the Security compared to the surrounding areas? What is the budget for said security? Are you getting your money's worth?
True lot's of dysfunctional citizens in SWVA due to poverty, lack of education, and other reasons along with apathy from state and rest of VA citizens in State. But that has been true for a at least 100 years.
What's changed?
http://vaperforms.virginia.gov/indicators/healthFamily/suicide.php
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Virginias violent crime rate was 270 per 100,000 people in 2007. Again, this rate has largely decreased since 1999, when the violent crime rate was 315. The 2007 rate is the 11th lowest in the nation; Maine ranks first with a rate of only 118. Compared to its peer states, Virginia is again a leader for low violent crime. In 2007, North Carolina saw a rate of 466, Tennessee was at 753, and Maryland posted a rate of 642.
http://vaperforms.virginia.gov/indicators/publicSafety/crime.php
More to VT's problems.........
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According to State Gov't graph only place suicide on rise is SWVA?
Why?
Is there a massive influx of mental health professionals headed into SWVA to stem this alarming increase?
I would say opposite is true.
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Since area is isolated and small, controlled by a few powerful people, what role corruption and cover up playing?
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SWVA is one of the most peaceful places I've ever had the privilege of living. It's not likely for this string of violence to occur, but if you take the nation on a whole, its inevitable that it will occur somewhere. To look at it another way, the odds of you winning the lottery may be one in a million, but the odds of someone winning the lottery are 100%. Check out the radiolab podcast on Stochasticity for a much better expanation...
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2009/09/11
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Correlation does not imply causation.
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Statistically true, but the frequency of these violent events is shocking, and each additional one now has me dreading the "next one". As one of my friends asked me a short while ago (prior to Ft. Hood), "Can't VT get a break from this stuff?"
I am fairly certain that there is no connection between any of these events, but the perception of connection is nonetheless there. Our problem now is to convince everyone (including ourselves) that there is no connection, and that we can go on as a normal school where people come to learn in safety, have fun, go to football games, and enjoy life in the beautiful part of VA where we live (and yes, even that we have to deal with the shenanigans of drunken students). It sounds so simple, but the headlines referenced in this piece (as well as what people from other places have said to me about each and every one of the violent events linked somehow to VT) point to great difficulty in this effort.
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The question isn't, "Does VT breed killers?" to which the answer is a resonding no of course.
The question is why the media tends to find it necessary to keep pointing it out, to which the answer is, because it makes for a better story when people can gaffaw (Sp?) at how VT has "so many" killers.
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"The question isn't, "Does VT breed killers?" to which the answer is a resonding no of course. "
How can you be so sure with so much data missing?
Are you just wishing?
Something is obviously wrong.
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I haven't seen the "media," I assume you mean the news media, play up the Virginia Tech angle at all. Just Twitter and blogs. Am I missing something? Do you have links?
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A constant for sure in all this is Tech admin. Cook counseling lack of support and director, Campus Police and Chiefs $40,000 raise in 2008 during a budget crisis and after worst massacre where they advised improperly.
Why does Admin control Campus police, seems to be a conflict and obstruction of justice? Maybe State Police should be in charge of state college police?
Something smells very bad regarding powers that be and cover up?
Too many warning signs ignored in the interest of image and Admin self preservation?
New party in charge in state after Jan. 2010. See what changes take place in state Gov't then?
Conservatives in charge will they do any better?
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WWII Smithsonian Channel
It can happen again only worse.
http://www.smithsonianchannel.com/site/smithsonian/show_apocalypse.do
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Hey CT, thanks for ruining my week by publishing this story. Seriously...
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+ 1
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did you read the article?
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A couple weeks ago I encountered a local,around 50, who works for a contractor on campus driving on Brush Mtn intoxicated with an open container.
Did anyone catch him or is he still a danger to the community? Blue Ford p/up. older model ranger.
He'll probably have a high powered rifle in the JNF and probably be drunk again this Sat as regular gun season opens for Big Game. You folks in law enforcement have any plans to patrol this area or is it just up to the Feds and Forest Rangers? Or the 1 or 2 game wardens covering multiple counties?
As you travel the area close to campus in the NF plenty of road hunters and garbage throughout the NF sure sign someone is not doing their job and enforcing the law, and deviants are in abundance. Probably because of lack of manpower and budget cuts. Can you help us out Chief Wendell Finchum, since your salary increase covers two more men for the area. Maybe more part time for hunting season?
Just asking....
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Five Chaplains Lose Jobs for Praying 'In Jesus' Name'
Virginia Governor Tim Kaine is defending why his administration forced the sudden resignation of five Virginia State Police Chaplains because they prayed publicly "in Jesus' Name."
http://www.ministers-best-friend.com/Chaplains-LOSE-JOBS-Praying-in-Jesus-Name.html
Why ask why?
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Why the world is a very dangerous place.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDLlEh0x2XA
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Whoever thinks that VT breeds mass murderers is not only an imbecile, but is just trying to seek attention in their own pathetic life
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So much of this debate is ignoring one simple fact - with mush dismay, our society has changed in the past 10-15 years. There is a general 'acceptance' of violent behavior that is playing out - demonstrated through programing online, through video games, cinema, and most importantly in the media. Add to that a new 'ferocity' around the acceptance of guns as a part of our daily lives and we are regrettably living through this period in social change. While the PC movement aroused new sensitivity and compassion for some it peaked in the early 2,000's while a much larger ground-swell of 'selfishness' grew without much notice. The result is a large segment of our society who truly feel they have the 'right to do what ever they want' and 'deal with emotional, political and social' ills in whatever way they want - even if that means bullying, threats, violence or as we have seen too often - murder. All "academic" debate aside - this is the reality of our world. So - what do we want to do about it?
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Why are PC people trying to get rid of GOD?
GOD is above "their" authority..........
They can't control you when there is a higher power. GOD gives you freedom and free will to accept or reject. Study of the bible it teaches morals, limits, consequences, responsibility, kindness, tolerance, FORGIVENESS, etc.
MIND, BODY, SPIRIT
Want to be a slave to evil get rid of GOD. Want freedom accept and worship and study, GOD's word.
Now watch the attacks come on GOD and religion!
Christian religion that is. "The WORLD" hates GOD.
"How is Satan god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4)?"
http://www.gotquestions.org/Satan-god-world.html
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Trust in GOD.........All others pay cash.
Don't believe anything you read or hear and only half of what you see!
Question authority (if only in your mind) NO BLIND TRUST!
PC = Political Courage not Politically Correct.
Stand up for truth and Justice and defeat this insidious enemy that is now in every corner and facet of our country and life.
THINK,
ASK QUESTIONS,
DEMAND TRUTH AND JUSTICE!
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This is not to say that he rules the world completely; only God does this. But it does mean that God, in His infinite wisdom, has allowed Satan to operate in this world (within the boundaries God has set for him) and has allowed Satan to operate with an agenda. When the Bible says Satan has power over the world, it must be made clear that God has given him domain over unbelievers alone. Believers are no longer under the rule of Satan (Colossians 1:13). Unbelievers, on the other hand, are caught "in the snare of the devil" (2 Timothy 2:26), lie in the "power of the evil one" (1 John 5:19), and are in bondage to Satan (Ephesians 2:2).
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http://www.jewishworldreview.com/
A whole collection of views from a different perspective.
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If you hit dead ends or incomptetent mental health care providers in VA or SWVA.
Contact these folks. Competent help is available albeit they are over worked and in short supply.
Fact: Mental health professional are flukies or drop outs of regular Med school. So we have the least capable working on the mosty complex part of the human body.
Look for a provider that is
1. an MD
2. Board certified in Pharmacology
3. Board certified in Internal medicine
4. Board certified in Psychiatry
Only you know your body always get a second a opinion and never Blindly trust them. Think Ask questions.
They are rare as hens teeth.
Why we have a problem as a nation in this field of Science/Medicine.
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Sorry here's the link.
http://www.cfmh.org/index.cfm?action=home
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http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/11/it_isnt_political_correctness.html
Shariah law forbids criticism of Islam. And here we are.
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This is really scary. CBS telling the truth. It must really BAD.
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/11/12/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5630806.shtml
Critics Say "Political Correctness" Caused Fort Hood
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Like Obama stated in his book...."I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction." ..
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I love VaTech and hate all this bad stuff being connected to us, but since you are speaking of violence here, you neglected to mention Michael Vick, although he - thank God -at least never graduated!
And no, VT does not breed killers, San Jose Examiner! This gun and violence crazy society we live in does!
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To the "San Jose Independent Examiner", "Is this all you can find to report on? Get a life."
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