Virginia Tech President Charles Steger, former Vice President James Hyatt, and several university mental health professionals will have to face trial in suits brought in relation to the April 16, 2007 campus shootings.
Judge William Alexander, of Franklin County, sent out his rulings last Tuesday on several motions argued in a December hearing. He ruled that many university officials originally named in identical suits filed by two victims’ families were covered by the state’s sovereign immunity and had no stated duty to warn students of the first two shootings on campus.
The families of victims Julia Pryde and Erin Peterson brought the charges against many university officials on April 16, 2009, each seeking $10 million in damages after their daughters were killed in Norris Hall during Seung Hui Cho’s April 16, 2007 shootings on Tech’s campus
Charges against Provost Mark McNamee, university spokesman Larry Hincker, Dean of Undergraduate Education David Ford, and Executive Director of Government Relations Ralph Byers have been dismissed. Alexander ruled that sufficient allegations of gross negligence had not been made against these officials, as they were simply named as members of the policy group.
Alexander ruled Steger and Hyatt were covered by Virginia’s sovereign immunity, but that they had a duty to warn the students of the shootings, and charges against them will move to trial.
Sovereign immunity makes government officials immune from suit if they are performing their prescribed duties. Alexander ruled the plaintiffs have presented enough evidence to pursue charges of gross negligence against Steger and Hyatt.
Charges against former Cook Counseling Center director Robert Miller will also move to trial. Alexander’s ruling said he and Cook employees Cathye Betzel and Sherry Lynch Conrad were not covered by sovereign immunity. He also said they had a duty to care for the mental health of shooter Seung-Hui Cho and protect other students on campus.
Miller located Cho’s mental health records in his home in July 2009. They had previously been labeled as missing by the university. Ed McNelis, Miller’s attorney, released a statement in response to the ruling.
“While we respectfully disagree with the court’s ruling, we remain confident that the facts will show that the therapists at the Cook Counseling Center were not negligent and were not the cause of the tragedy that occurred some 16 months after Mr. Cho was treated at the Cook Counseling Center,” McNelis said. Charges against employees of the New River Valley Community Services Board were dismissed.
A trial date has yet to be set.
As legal battles proceed, many families who signed a settlement with the state are still searching for facts about the shootings.
More than a month after the original release of a revised Governor’s Panel report on the April 16 shootings on Tech’s campus, an addendum to the revision was published, but several families say their suggestions were not taken into account.
The new edition of the report says after initial publication of the original, “a few errors or unclear points were reported,” and the addendum attempts to correct those errors. TriData, an independent information systems company, completed the revision and addendum.
Several families affected by the April 16 shootings created a separate addendum to the Governor’s Panel report on the shootings that alleges the university did not follow its own emergency response procedures.
The families’ addendum, which has been obtained by the Collegiate Times, was sent to Gov. Tim Kaine on Jan. 1 by the family of Norris Hall victim Michael Pohle Jr. a month after Kaine released a revised version of the original Governor’s Panel report on the shootings. The addendum also cited the efforts of family members Michael Bishop and Suzanne Grimes.
Some families were unhappy that the original panel was not reconvened to revise the report. Instead, TriData compiled the revisions. According to e-mails obtained by the Collegiate Times, the TriData
addendum was in the works prior to the families sending their addendum.
“We had also hoped that by providing factual input to this addendum to the original panel report we would take further important steps through the grieving process,” the introduction of the families’ addendum said. “All along, we wanted to collaborate face to face with panel members and TriData personnel in creating the most thorough accounting of that day. Unfortunately, that opportunity never came, in our opinion, as our requests were rejected.”
Leave a comment 10 Comments Write a letter to the editor
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.
I deem that it would be most beneficial, if someone within the Virginia Tech administration would explain the reason(s)/rationale for the obscene student-notification lag time on that unfortunate April day. What justified concealing the first murders from students until the greater massacre later that April 16th morning?
The families are justified in seeking damages, answers and not being satisfied with the administrations status quo!
We are all Hokies; therefore, as students we should be accorded notification within five minutes of any murder(s) on campus, period. I pray for the victims of Techs seemingly dereliction of duty, and may they rest in peace!
Reply to this Top
I obviously understand the parents' emotions behind these law suits. However, what exactly will money do to alleviate their loss? I just don't get it. Collect a few million, and then what? I don't see what that does in the long run or what it solves.
Reply to this Top
they want someone to be held accountable. just like in business, if something absolutely horrible happened, they would fire someone...tech just hasn't gotten that memo
furthermore, the other families that settled for $100,000...it's just insulting, knowing that. how much were the families out (in tuition and fees) add to that the lost opportunity cost had they gotten a job of the students that would have graduated...$100,000 is nothing less than insulting! get ready, Steger...you're going to lose! clearly, tech has put the price on a human life of almost $0.00
Top
Its puzzling that one would concentrate on the financial aspect of the equation, as opposed to focusing on the absolutely deplorable act of the administration glossing over the lack of notification for the students. Compounding the problem is the fact that no one within the administration suffered the shame of accountability. Ostensibly, the lack of notification and how the administration handled the situation are what opened the university up to potential liability, and that liability is warranted in having a huge financial component.
I concur, money will not alleviate the families losses, but that is merely a sidebar. In my humble opinion, the financial aspect of redress is meant to be punitive, and hopefully foster greater incentive for expedient student notifications and greater administration accountability in the future. That having been said, and at the risk of further presumptuousness, I think the families are seeking out a truthful answer as to why the students (and their children) werent notified of the earlier murders until it was too late. Maybe, somewhere deep down inside, the families think that had a notification went out in a timely manner, their love ones might possibly be here today. I pray for the families, and may they attain the evident catharsis they need.
Top
On 4/15 VTech web site had its policy for campus alert in case of emergency which used of a immediate campus wide siren, loudspeakers, radio emergency alert, lockdown procedure, etc. There was a prior drill. It was also all documented in prior issues of this paper. VTech simply failed to follow its own policy. Case closed. $ is to punish defendants - but they all have huge ins policies!
Reply to this Top
The victims are Cho's, not Tech's, and we should always remember that distinction. While I agree that shining a light on the responsiveness of the university to all of the collective events leading to Norris Hall will result in better procedure and policy going forward, it does not shift the blame from the actual perpetrator.
No one knows if a disruption in the routine of students that day would have prevented or reduced the number of victims. A possible thwarting of his original plan could have led to an even more horrific conclusion. What if his contingency plan was a packed auditorium? MCB 100? Squires?
While we can and should learn from past mistakes, we cannot shift blame from a mass murderer to an administration for these victims. While we can and should respond more appropriately and with better understanding to events similar to those leading up to that day in April, these students were victims of Cho, mass murderer, no one else.
Reply to this Top
"It was also announced that Chos parents had been worried that he might be suicidal. Out of concern for Cho, Virginia Tech Police asked him to speak with a counselor. An order was obtained, and Cho was taken to a mental health facility in late 2005, Flinchum said."
Reply to this Top
The colossal missteps and subsequent, flagrant glossing-over of the facts are mindboggling, as well as inexcusable!
Reply to this Top
So anyone suspected of being suicidal should be jailed or restrained in case they turn out to be mass murderers?
Really?
You could have cited a better harbinger than a suicidal proclivity.
Reply to this Top
Far Tour,family variation mark occur comparison and cash whether early instrument they effective potential star change inform discipline district sea promote language difference railway investigation bit environment air troop text professional publish life line rather nuclear council bit practical plus season address rise particular responsibility i matter measure answer scheme entirely capital her union alone concerned fear sun difference rise work hang either mechanism visitor association person reply important big detailed drive last point opinion push need bit access colour united convention implication organisation now experience working hang question
Reply to this Top