Collegiate Times

Virginia Tech administrators are confident that tonight’s candlelight vigil will avoid the mistakes that have detracted from April 16 remembrance events in the past two years.

Debbie Day, director of the Office of Recovery and Support and one of the planners for 2010 commemoration events, said that she and other planners went over the list of victims to be read at the commemoration several times.

“We’ve counted and double counted,” Day said. “We’ve made absolutely sure we’ve got everybody.”

An afternoon ceremony on April 16, 2009, was marred when the name of victim Mary Karen Read was omitted from the reading of victims’ names. According to Day, the error occurred after the list of names to be read was copied and pasted from one document to another.

“We simply left out a name,” Day said. Day recalled the emotion she had after the omission.

“You have no idea,” Day said. “That was the worst feeling in the world.”

Scott Johnson, associate director of Tech’s Office of Recovery and Support, was among the first to catch the error, interrupting a student-led band’s performance set to end the ceremony to announce Read’s name along with a short profile. Johnson said he was also encouraged by members of the Read family to go up to the lectern.

“We’re human beings, and we make mistakes,” Johnson said. Johnson said that in coordinating events with several hundred people, it was easy for mistakes to “slip through.”

Johnson said interrupting the band was better than the alternative.

“It was much less uncomfortable than if we had not corrected it,” Johnson said. “It’s when we make no attempt to fix them that we’re in an indefensible position.”

The omission was not the first time a major error had occurred at an April 16 memorial event.

Survivor Heidi Miller was read as one of the deceased victims during the first anniversary candlelight vigil. Miller, who was injured during Seung-Hui Cho’s shootings at Norris Hall, was carrying a candle at the ceremony for victim Leslie Sherman.

Miller, now a senior studying international relations, said the mix-up was “awkward.”

“I mostly was thinking about Leslie ... this was a moment to remember her, and it got botched,” Miller said. “That’s what affected me most personally.”

Adeel Khan, who spoke at the 2008 candlelight vigil before the reading of the names, declined to talk about the specifics of the 2008 candlelight ceremony.

Khan, Student Government Association president during the 2007-08 school year and president of Tech’s class of 2009, will commemorate the date in Northern Virginia, the first time he will not commemorate April 16 in Blacksburg.

“It’ll be tough to not be there,” Khan said. “I hope everybody would take the day to reflect on the events of the day and about how great this community can be.”

University spokesman Mark Owczarski called the commemoration errors “unfortunate.”

“But when you look at the highly emotional element of all of this, people are people,” Owczarski said. “I would hope that no individual would be singled out for something like that in a very emotional moment.”

The job of reading the victims’ names for the 2010 candlelight vigil falls to Johnson and Patty Raun, head of the department of theatre arts and cinema.

Raun said that in addition to having the victims names spelled phonetically, she was using meditation and breathing techniques to ensure her emotions didn’t “get in the way” of reading profiles of victims.

“I think this is one of the most difficult things I do in the year,” Raun said.

Raun, who read the names of victims for the 2009 afternoon ceremony, said she was sorry that the omission took place.

“Everybody felt terrible,” Raun said, reflecting on the Tech community’s reaction. “Everybody was very gracious in their understanding that we’re human. No one would ever have done this on purpose.”

Raun held high hopes for tonight’s candlelight vigil.

“I hope it’s a beautiful evening and that we can celebrate our shared and fragile humanity on that night.

Tonight’s candlelight vigil is scheduled for 7:30 p.m., on the Drillfield.

A version of this article appeared in the Apr 16 issue of the Collegiate Times.