“The finding that there was lack of adequate attention by Virginia Tech to the red flags raised by Cho’s actions is reinforced by further examination of communications among faculty and Virginia Tech staff,” the report said. “The Review Panel faulted Virginia Tech for not connecting the dots. Since then, more unconnected ‘dots’ have come to light.”
Specific examples include female students complaining about Cho’s odd behavior. He is believed to have continually made unwanted attempts to contact a female student in East Campbell Hall in December 2005, writing Shakespeare quotes on a whiteboard outside her room and instant messaging her.
However, in a response to a comment on the revisions, the revised report downplays the importance of the Cook Counseling Center records found in July.
“The papers in the file on Cho provided very little information that the Review Panel did not already have,” the report said.
It continued to cite earlier medical records as being more helpful in “connecting the dots.”
“The records from practitioners who treated Cho before he attended Virginia Tech are far more informative and relevant than the intake forms in Cho’s file from CCC,” the report said.
Other papers, submitted to the police by Professor Bob Hicok, were also examined for the first time as part of the revision. The Virginia State Police did not release the papers to the panel in the original investigation because they were part of their investigation file.
The papers included a play that “described an anguished student’s internal dialogue as he contemplates shooting students in a classroom.”
The report also responds to families’ allegations that the university hindered the report by appointing former official Lenwood McCoy as the point of contact for all university personnel in regards to the original Review Panel.
“Some victims’ families questioned whether Virginia Tech should be characterized as ‘extremely cooperative’ with the Review Panel, and whether having a point of contact to obtain information and arrange interviews was a barrier imposed by Virginia Tech,” the report said. “In fact, it was the Review Panel staff that requested a point of contact to facilitate such things as finding and scheduling Virginia Tech faculty and staff for interviews.”
The same clarification also said some university employees were “guarded” in discussions with the panel.
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All letters to the editor must include a name, e-mail, daytime phone number and affiliation to Virginia Tech. Affiliation includes: year and major for students; position and department for faculty and staff; current city for alumni and parents.
Connecting the dots is an important thing and there is more that should still be considered. I am personally working on this through my Website {www.vtlessonstolearn.com) and a soon to be published book detailing my ensuing tragedy following the VT Tragedy.
The Virginia Tech Campus and the entire community needs a greater perspective and further healing and until this happens, other tragic incidents are likely. The Cook Counseling Center and Mental Health Community Counselors are needing to learn some things too.
We all continue to seek some closure from the tragedy earlier this year (also personally impacting me) and even finding the killer of Heidi Lynn Childs and David Lee Metzler. Morgan Harrington's disapperance continues to baffle us as well.
The spiritual aspects are still largely being ignored or dismissed, yet are at the core of the emotional and physical tragedies, as well as for each of us individually. May more find healing there and even learn from my own personal tragedy.
Charles Pugh
Campus Minster and Messenger at VT 1995-2007 and beyond
www.vtlessonstolearn.com
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More information available here in this random article from Wisconsin http://www.channel3000.com/news/21812314/detail.html
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I am sick of them releasing this stuff and keeping on talking about this if they aren't going to do something in response to these reports. It's like more and more evidence that someone should have been held responsible for not notifying the campus community. I just wish they'd stop talking about it if there's no reason to talk about it.
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I'm looking forward to hearing what comes out in the civil suit on 12/14. This amended report should help the plainitffs though I would bet much much more has already been discovered by Mr. Hall's team.
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One policy group member,(Ralph Byers) unnamed by the report, e-mailed a Richmond colleague (Laura Fornash)informing them that one student was dead and another critically injured. The Attoney General's office knew at 8:40am and the only reason this office was informed is because someone in the AG's office was concerned of a neice/nephew that was a student at VT. Does it make sense to inform the AG's office that is over 300 miles away what was going on in WAJ before the VT community. This is a violation of the Clery Act!
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Thanks for bringing up the spiritual and emotional agony this has brought on everyone with a conscious, Mr. Pugh.
I have questions.
Why did the chief of police at VT get a $40,000 a year raise after shooting?When the state is in a budget crisis.
Why is the Shooting in the gym last August 2008 still being kept secret? And don't give me the privacy garbage. If it was an employee he violated any privacy agreement when he brought a gun and discharged it at VT.
Why are the Admin involved still employed at VT?
VERY scary.
Why does the Admin control the VT police? And why is the VT campus a separate jurisdiction from either the state, county, or town? Which means no other law enforcement can come in unless invited to do so.
Why is Nikki Giovanni still employed at VT? She admits she is on the side of the "Thugs" and not those who are against them. She has a "thug
life" tattoo. She confronted Cho as his professor instead of helping to get him identified and get him help. And no she is profiting off the VT murders and her 10 sec of fame through her increased speaking fees. Why is she still at VT?
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I can't respond to you first four questions, but I can tell you that Prof Giovanni (and the entire English department for that matter) covered all bases in trying to get Cho some help. She had him removed from her class when he wrote something disturbing aimed at his classmates, and Lucinda Roy took him on as an independent study so that she could encourage him to get some help. Other members of the English department (Bob Hicok, among others) contacted higher administration to encourage them to intervene.
This is the failure of higher admin, not his teachers who pleaded with them to do something.
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I knew about Ms Roy and I commend her for her actions and efforts and she ought to get the recognition she deserves officially. As she was a lone beacon of light, professionalism, and reason it appears.
However I find Ms. Giovannis behavior and writing disturbing for a State Professor. She was quoted as saying she wasn't going to let Cho "push her around" (verbally) during a meeting with Cho on a sidewalk around campus. Seems she should be able to handle herself a little better with a student in obvious distress and trouble if she is a professional and enlightened professor.
Giovanni discusses her "Thug Life" tattoo, which she sports to honor slain rapper Tupac Shakur. "I'd rather be with the thugs than the people who are complaining about them, for sure," she explains.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/flash/vd.asp?PID=12012&aud=1&{slinkprefix}&nav=1
Not to mention her profiting from her 10 sec of fame at the remembrance ceremony, through increased speaking fees.
Doesn't fit my description of an Academian.Sorry.
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Before commenting on the VT Police Department and their jurisdiction, you ought to better understand the working relationship the PD has with surrounding agencies. You may also want to look a little further into the existing "memorandum of understandings."
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