The Virginia Tech shootings: Why we need code red drills
April 16, 2007, will soon be joining important dates such as Sept. 11, 2001, and April 20, 1999, in our nation’s history. The occasion? The deadliest campus shooting spree to date.
This morning, 32 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) students and faculty were killed and at least 30 were injured by an unidentified shooter, who then killed himself. The entire Blacksburg community was in a state of emergency after the two most likely connected shootings at 7 a.m. and roughly 9:45 a.m.
Virginia Tech has gone through a lot recently. Last August, the campus was shut down after an armed escaped inmate was spotted on campus grounds. However, Va Tech’s shooting has not been the only school shooting so far in 2007. On Jan. 3, there was a high school shooting at Henry Foss High School in Tacoma, Wash.
The fact that there were two shooting incidents at Va Tech separated by several hours is a call for concern. Campus security and police could not have controlled the initial situation very well, in which two students were killed in a dorm, since the later far more deadly spree was all the way on the other side of campus.
This tragic event highlights the importance of school safety and drills. In a few weeks, we will be having a “code red” drill, which will basically go through the procedures if a suspected shooter is in the building. For more information regarding our code red drills, refer to a previous Gargoyle article, School safety: Code red drill anticipated for this semester.
While in general people do not take drills very seriously, you should at least pay attention to this one. Uni is a safe school overall, but school shootings are sporadic and unexpected. The more prepared students are, the more quickly and effectively an incident will be stopped.
For more information regarding the shooting, refer to the following Web sites. The Virginia Tech site includes three online podcasts by the president and a timeline of events:
— Washington Post article: 33 Dead in Virginia Tech Shootings, At Least 30 Injured
— Facebook Group: A tribute to those who passed at the Virginia Tech Shooting
— Benjamin Fu