Collegiate Times

...and the field of personal injury law reaches a new low.

This is one of the most ludicrous and ridiculous instances of personal entitlement that I have encountered. The shootings at the VT were caused by one person and no one is to blame but the one that pulled the trigger (period). The University is not at fault, the students themselves are not at fault, the state is not at fault, nor is the town of Blacksburg. The Hokie Spirit Memorial fund was built by the friends and supporters of Virginia Tech not because any of the victims and their families are entitled to anything, but because we have all shared in this loss and we wanted to do something. To turn around and demand more out of a gift is petty, disgraceful, and is an insult to our generosity. Hindsight is always clear and a multitude of possibilities could arise to assign blame other than to the one person that caused this. Who else *might* be at fault and could have *stopped* these events? Perhaps these families will next sue the students because they didn't disarm the shooter when they had chance.

So disgusted that individuals aim to take money from a state funded university. The fault of this incident remains simply with Cho. Hindsight is great and everyone can say what if the university/town had reacted differently, but there are other what ifs that could go with that: What if the school had been locked down and instead he shot up his dorm, What if he went to Squires, what if he went to the Empo….etc. The only people that the families are hurting by filing a lawsuit against the university are the remaining students and faculty. They are not proving any point or bringing back their children, they are only hindering the growth of the surviving student body.

I disagree that if school were closed this event would have still have occurred with the same magnitude. In the dorms, it is obviously harder for an assailant to walk into separate rooms with 2 people each than to bust into classrooms full of lots of students in one place. It would take a lot more time to do - and the police would have been able to come in the same amount of time, but because there are only 2 people to a dorm less people would have died in that same amount of time. And if school was cancelled, the Empo and Squires should have been cancelled too (and if this isn't regular procedure, it should be). And you gotta realize that Norris didn't have tons of entrances when compared to other buildings such as the residence halls- if the assailant had to lock a lot more doors, people would have caught on much quicker to what he was doing. My guess is that if school had been cancelled, the assailant would have decided to wait until another day, and the police would have been able to figure out who he was based on evidence (such as conversations on the computer) in relation to the AJ deaths. Or he would have tried the dorms, but the number of deaths would be at least half the size. I agree that lawsuits will only harm the student body and isn't in anyone's best interest, and isn't very rational. But if the administration had admitted that they should have communicated much more effectively (aka not keeping the first shooting a secret and continuing on with school as if nothing had happened). I am sad they didn't. Other schools - or other facilities - could, and need to, learn from that kind of critique.

It is interesting to note here that it was not until WELL after the day had ended that Cho was conclusively linked to the shootings in AJ, and that the link was only confirmed after ballistics evidence proved this conclusion. Nobody knew that he had guns, nobody knew he had this plan, nobody knew a damn thing. I would contend, thus, that the shooting likely WOULD have happend within the next several days had campus been shut down. But the discussion here is about whether or not it is ethically right to file suit against the university, the town and the state, and I would think that such action would be preposterous. This seems like nothing more than another personal injury attorney smelling the big bucks and insisting that 'someone be held accountable.' Someone HAS been held accountable - Cho, the only person who was wholly at fault for this ordeal.

I couldn't agree with Kyle more. Just shutting down campus that day would not have led to the arrest/discovery of Cho. The only reason anyone know he committed the shootings in AJ was because the bullets were from the same gun that was used in Norris. That's it. So they shut down the campus on that Monday...all he would have done is wait. The What if game goes both ways, we have no idea what he would have done but all I know for sure is this kid was not completely sane and he definitely wanted to cause a whole lot of damage and carnage.

While I do believe that there are other courses of action that could have potentially been taken that day, I believe Steger and the University acted as best they could given the information they were given at the time. I can't imagine having to make the decisions they were faced with that day. And, I do understand that there is a tremendous amount of hurt and grief suffered by these families, but money doesn't solve these problems. The HSMF was created, as said previously, because people wanted to help - they wanted to reach out in any way they could. Because of this generosity, there is substantial money going to those directly affected by this tragedy. I also believe that, whenever something horrible happens, you want to find someone to blame. Because the perpetrator is deceased, people are trying to find a new outlet for that anger. Unfortunately, it seems that the University is next in line. I understand that these families can do what they feel is appropriate on the road to healing, but I do not think more money will fill the hole their loved one left.

More evidence that there are too many lawyers and people out for money. Why don't they sue his parents who should bear most of the responsibility next to Cho himself?

Right, G, so when you fail classes the university should put your parents on academic probation. Or, when you get a speeding ticket, your parents should have their liscences taken away. If you kill a guy, your parents should serve jail time right along with you. How possible are Cho's parents responsible for his actions? You wouldn't want your parents meddling in your life; my guess is, he probably didn't want his parents meddling in his life either. I don't have a profound amount of respect for Cho, but I don't think laying the blame at the feet of his parents is the right approach either. . .

I'd like to clear up a couple of things that I read over and over again in these comments. 1. It's not about money. These people--all of them--want their kids back. They're not looking to get rich or take advantage of the University. They want to make sure things change so that it cannot happen again; they feel that the University has not adequately done so. Chances are if they are awarded money it will go to making these things happen--not into their pockets. So get the stick out of your rear and realize exactly what it's like to lose a child, whether or not the families are right to be suing. 2. You can say you believe the University did nothing wrong all you want. However, the Panel Report says otherwise. Since your beliefs are not as admissible in a court of law as the Report, frankly, no one cares. No one questions that the responsibility lies ultimately with the shooter. He made the decision to do what he did. However, there were a lot of people who could've stopped it, who failed to. His parents, yes, but what could suing them accomplish? I can't imagine they could feel any more miserable than they already do. People say, "Well, if school had been closed, it would've just happened somewhere else or maybe another day." Perhaps. But at least those victims would've been walking into work/class with knowledge that they might be in more danger than normal. We give warnings about dangerous ice on the roads--watch out, you could slip and hurt yourself! Why don't we give warnings about shooters on campus? Watch out, he could shoot you and you could die. It's just a little worse than snow, I think. Apparently the Panel agrees with me.