By SUE LINDSEY
ROANOKE
Virginia Tech should release all of its records in the April 2007 campus shootings that left 33 people dead so that others can learn from the events, family members of victims said Thursday.
University officials said Wednesday that they were partially reversing their decision to withhold certain documents related to the shooting rampage by student Seung-Hui Cho.
Under an $11 million settlement with the victims' families, the school promised to set up a public archive with key facts about the shootings.
"I think there's so much to learn about the event that I don't understand why Virginia Tech doesn't release these, unless they're worried about their image," said Suzanne Grimes, whose son Kevin Sterne was among two dozen people injured
University spokesman Larry Hincker said the school will include in the archive some documents from an emergency meeting held by senior officials after two people were shot in a dormitory the morning of April 16, 2007. Those shootings occurred about 2½ hours before Cho killed 30 others in a classroom building, then took his own life.
Hincker said that the school will release Cho's academic records, but not his health records. Police have said they did not intend to release 911 calls from that day, he said.
Families of victims will have first access to the archive, Hincker said, and it will be made public later.
Roger O'Dell, whose son Derek was injured, praised the release of some documents but said, "The whole story aches to be told."
Holly Sherman, whose daughter Leslie was killed, questioned why any of those records should be withheld.
"What are they hiding?" she said. "It just begs more questions, is what it does."
Sherman and Grimes said it appeared that Virginia Tech was not honoring its part in the settlement, in which families of victims agreed not to sue the school.
"It's clearly written that any material related to April 16 would be released to the public," Grimes said.
Two families who did not agree to the settlement have filed notices of possible lawsuits.
All but one set of notes from the administrators' meeting and records about Cho were withheld from the university's response to a Richmond Times-Dispatch request for documents submitted to the families' lawyers. The request was made under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.
A review of documents released suggested a possible connection between Cho and the fourth floor of the West Ambler Johnston Hall, the site of the first two killings, the newspaper said. A woman who complained to police in 2005 that Cho had stalked her lived there.
The newspaper's review also showed that one door to Norris Hall, the building where most of the shootings occurred, was unlocked. Hincker said that door was an underground connection to an adjoining building. Police officers were delayed getting into the building because the exterior doors were chained.
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What is the big secret about the 911 recordings?
Someone is obviously hiding something.
If Tim Kaine can't get in front of this, why should anyone consider him for Vice President?
sound and fury
The VT Police Department purposefully under-reports sexual assault statistics. They have done so since the mid-80s. If they are going to lie about violent crimes such as rape, they are certainly going to cover-up a snafu like this.
This is more and more like, "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." (Macbeth V.5)
virginia tech shootings
It still upset when I think about the tragedy. I watched the phone video taken by a student outside of the shooting site. I can't understand why the campus police took so long to get into the building. The police chief should have been fired!
Katie, privacy does not extend to crimes
I agree with you that we can't exclude everyone who doesn't measure up a socially "normal." And there are good reasons for medical privacy laws. We don't want to discourage those who need help from getting it.
But Cho committed CRIMES. Mentally ill or not, stalking is a crime. The University police discouraged two women who were stalked from pressing charges. Had he been prosecuted, his family would have been alerted to his mental deterioration regardless of privacy laws and he would not have been able to purchase firearms legally.
Covering up criminal activity, and particularly stalking, which is a crime of aggression against women, is unacceptable. The records pertaining to the taking of that decision are vital if the public is to properly oversee the operation of our Universities.
Shame
Releasing Cho's academic record is a red herring. We already know he wasn't Phi Beta Kappa. What I want to know is how publicly paid officials responded that morning. The meeting notes prior to the Norris Hall event is the keystone to understanding institutional behavior. I suspect the notes will reveal Dr. Steger was attempting to contain a situation and avoid a media repeat of the Morva ordeal.
The University was wrong not to warn the students. Why did it take so long to put the text messaging system online? What a shameful and bloody delay of a simple project at a "polytechnic" school. How embarrassing.
They can't protect the students, but they are masterful at protecting themselves. Shame, shame.
As a student of Virginia
As a student of Virginia Tech, I know of or am very close friends with people who were stalked, injured, and killed by Cho. As someone who lived through the shootings on campus, I can say that I believe we desearve every possible answer that we can be given. I think the Virginia Tech community and other organizations who could benifit from learning from Virginia Tech's mistakes desearve to know all information about the shooting. Everyone alraedy knows WHAT happened, so lets see WHY and HOW this person was able to slip through the cracks. Learning how to seal up these cracks is something that thousands of schools around the country can benifit from, not just VT.
records
As a student at VT who was there during the shooting. I don't believe that releasing the records will help anything. The University did the best that they could in a situation that no one was truely prepared for. Hopefully, other schools and Univerisities will be prepared if something like this or Illinios happens again, but VT didn't know that Cho would go that far. Releasing every record possible isn't going to help anyone. The school can't kick out every student that doesn't seem normal and they can't tell the parents of the students because we have civil rigts that we fight for everyday. Cho was an adult, and while VT should have kicked him off campus after people filed complains about him, the school does not have the right to tell his parents nor do they have the right to kick him out for writing disturbing papers.
26,000 students year in and year out
Yes, that was a huge mistake and all of us that deal with 26,000 students year after year without flaw are qualified to sit back after the fact and judge VT. We don't look at the fact that Cho's stalking women had no effect on his committing mass murder, we don't look at the state legal system that VT was trapped in with no end point to whatever action they took. It's been 15 months, the victims are dead, Cho is dead, Cho would've killed because he was determined to kill. All we're accomplishing is prolonging exposure and giving the next Cho metaphorical ammunition. This continued attention and placing blame on the institution and not the man, only reenforces the next Cho with the attitude that the institutions are bad and that they should take action. Yes, 15 months later let's keep pointing fingers from our armchairs and keep the story going to encourage more psycho's. I wish that every critic wo
I agree
w/Dr. Taber. Also, the notes & communications that determined whether or not to cancel classes & not lock down the campus is what people want to see. They want to know how that/those decisions were made. I think that's where many people believe mistakes were made & if different decisions were made maybe the tragedy could've been lessoned. I know they would like to use these lessons learned to hopefully head off situations like this in the future. I also thought 911 recordings fell under the freedom of information act(FOIA) as they are public records. I don't know the legalities though so I'll not comment further, but I'd like to know if they are or not. I also believe that in keeping some records private will make some people believe they're trying to hide something. Even if that's not the case it sure makes it look that way.
Typical Mentality
Universities want to keep as much as they can secret. In this case, the PR hit and potential lawsuits made them change their minds. But it goes back to the fact that they only want the public to see bits and pieces.
Critical ommissions
Those are not the important records. The records that matter are the communications among faculty and staff regarding Cho PRIOR to that day. If, as other evidence suggests, the administration had been made aware that Cho was dangerous by faculty members who were afraid he might become violent, then Tech's decision to do nothing to protect students and faculty from him (and instead, disarmed his potential victims,) then they will be seen as liable in the remaining civil cases.
Too many people are focusing only on any errors that might have been made that day in responding to the shooting. The response by university police was really about as fast as could really be expected. It is the failure of the University to react to Cho's clear threat, as evidenced by crimes (stalking) he committed, in the months before the shooting started that is negligent. Pressuring the stalked women to not press