In the days following April 16, 2007, we all had questions. If students weren't asking them, the news media was and families of the victims certainly were. It seemed just as we went into a period of healing and bonding and the Gov. Tim Kaine's review panel began to investigate the event, we put the details aside. The investigations will yield more information soon enough, we thought.
But here we are, well over a year after that day and over a month since the families and the university reached settlements, and there are still unanswered questions in the minds of the public that have privately held answers that might never be revealed, according to an investigative report by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
As part of the families' settlements, certain information and certain documents were to become public information made available in an April 16 archive. So far, the university has failed to provide such information and university spokesperson Larry Hincker said that, "Decisions about what to be put in the archives have not been made yet."
The university has six months to create the archive that will contain key facts about the shootings. Some of these key facts are the answers to public questions and fill the holes in the string of events of that day.
With such vital points missing such as notes about Seung-Hui Cho's counseling records being inadvertently destroyed and e-mails from concerned professors regarding Cho's mental health, how can we know whether we'll ever be given the whole truth?
Even those of us who have never harbored anger or resentment toward the university regarding actions or inactions on that day deserve to know the full truth and exactly what happened. Some people wandering campus uninformed that day have two more years at Virginia Tech, on the same campus run by the same officials that made decisions that changed, or could have changed, lives on April 16.
Students deserve to hear about what was said during the emergency meeting between the first two shootings in West Ambler-Johnston Hall and be able to read the notes taken and the subsequent e-mails that were sent by critical decision makers.
People deserve to have this information in a public, accessible place, and should be able to retrieve it without filing a Freedom of Information Act request.
Just over one month ago the Richmond Circuit Court reviewed 24 wrongful death suits, deciding that information about the wrongful deaths of their loved ones is as vital as monetary compensation.
For the families that settled under those terms, and for those affected and those interested who deserve to know, the university needs to fully disclose information in the April 16 archive.
The editorial board is composed of David Harries and Lauren Lee.
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