Correction: Editor's note: This story has been changed from its original copy. April 16 was a Monday, not a Tuesday like it implied. The Collegiate Times regrets this error.

Shao Cui/SPPSErin Sheehan, a sophomore mechanical engineering major, survived the shootings in Norris Hall last spring.

Though several people were killed in her classroom that day, Sheehan survived because she ducked under a desk while Seung-Hui Cho shot at her classmates and professor.

Because of her experiences in the building, Sheehan is now suggesting that a class on defense tactics be taught at a high school level to inform students of what to do in an emergency situation in the classroom.

"In the last eight months I have been trying to deal with my post-traumatic stress disorder to the best of my capability, but with that said, every time I enter a classroom, lecture hall, or almost any room on campus I mentally design a plan for what I would do in every emergency situation I can imagine," Sheehan, now a sophomore mechanical engineering major, wrote in a letter to the editor to the Collegiate Times.

Sheehan also wrote that she cannot blame anyone in her classroom for not taking action against Cho when he entered the classroom, but if there had been two or three individuals properly trained, she believes the casualties would have been significantly lower.

In an interview with the CT, Sheehan explained her idea of having defense tactic classes "instead of, or in addition to, a high school gym." She also thinks that high schools should integrate martial arts into their system.

"I was just thinking a high school program that would teach you self-defense classes — basically what a woman's self-defense program teaches — teaching basic holds, or what would happen if there was someone with a gun," Sheehan said. "There is basic training in the military where you can be trained to take a gun away from an attacker, so something like that."

Barry Trent, coordinator for health and physical education for Roanoke County Schools, said that he didn't think it would be a bad idea to teach defense and martial arts classes in high school, but not in place of P.E. classes.

"The hurdle would be getting instructors that are certified," Trent said.

Trent also said that a concern would be students in direct contact with other students. He said that they used to teach wrestling in P.E. classes, but had to stop because of student contact concerns.

Geof Allen, officer in the community outreach unit of the Virginia Tech Police Department, said defense tactics are part of the training necessary to get into the police department and the student police academy. He said that the training for police officers includes martial arts combined with ground fighting.

"Law enforcement is trained in defense; the issue with that is it requires practice, training, and constantly staying on top of moves," Allen said.

Allen said that the defense part of police training is toward the end of the program because it requires you to be really physically fit.

"It is so physically intense, you have to be in really good shape," Allen said.

He said he did think it would be feasible to model their defense training for younger students, such as students in high school.

In her letter to the editor, Sheehan said that when she came back to school after April 16, the university had posted a list of emergency instructions near a door in every classroom.

"In my opinion this is just a waste of paper, because I didn't see anyone running around my classroom looking for a list of instructions when a gunman entered," Sheehan said in her letter.

Sheehan said that one of the security measures she personally advocated was putting locks on all the classroom doors.

"In my German class, the door wouldn't close and someone had to get a piece of furniture to block it," Sheehan said.

She also said although she feels the locks on the doors keeps the classroom more secure in emergency situations, some of the doors have windows on them, making it easy for an attacker to bust through. She also said she thought that requiring students to use key access to enter dorms is unnecessary.

With the subject of self-defense on campus inevitably comes the discussion of carrying concealed weapons on campus. Sheehan said that she doesn't think that legalizing carrying concealed weapons on campus would have prevented many deaths on April 16.

"I would say that people would need a lot of training — even more than they would need self-defense training — to in the heat of it, harm the gunman and not anyone else effectively," Sheehan said. "I think that's pretty unlikely."

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