Nearly three years after the massacre at Virginia Tech, the lower house of the Virginia legislature has neither the will nor the backbone to pass truly effective legislation to make the state’s college campuses safer. In a state that has suffered two of the most serious school shootings — the Appalachian School of Law (three dead and two wounded) and Virginia Tech (32 dead and 17 wounded) — the lower house shies away from its duties to the citizenry.
The lower house does just enough to say it has done something; not enough to make a difference. Most recently, the Virginia house significantly weakened state Sen. John Edwards’ bill to amend and reenact the Code of Virginia relating to crisis and emergency management for public institutions of higher learning. Specifically, members of the lower house took exception to university presidents and other school officials having to certify they comprehend and understand the school’s emergency plan — a plan that they play a role in creating.
Stop to think what members of the Virginia legislature have done, they have said that presidents of our colleges and universities do not have to comprehend and understand a document that is critical to the security of our children. Incredible, absolutely incredible.
While the state Senate had passed the original bill unanimously, the House of Delegates balked over a critical detail. The two strongest opponents of the legislation — they wouldn’t vote for it in any form — were Delegates Dave Nutter (an employee of Tech) and Anthony Poindexter, a far right-wing politician who tried to derail the reappointment of Judge William Alexander, the judge who ruled that the lawsuit against Tech President Charles Steger and other school officials could go forward.
If you read the official reports of both the shootings at Columbine High School and Tech, there is repeated emphasis on school security plans and the role of those plans in preventing campus shootings. Now, according to the Virginia lower House, the presidents of the state’s colleges and universities do not have to understand those plans.
The House of Delegates should be ashamed of itself.
A version of this article appeared in the Apr 7 issue of the Collegiate Times.
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Wait, politics that works? Come on....that's ludicrous! Politics is all about political gain and everything is personal and partisan. I mean, Dave Nutter, a Virginia Tech Professor and our Delegate, voted AGAINST allowing homosexuals to be a protective class against discrimination. Why? Because if he voted for it (against his "party"), he would never have a chance to do anything in the house of delegates. Politics is a dirty dirty game. And...frankly, it makes me sick to my stomach.
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