The Shootings at Virginia Tech

Monday, April 16 2007 will go down in the history books just like Columbine did-and for the same reason.

At 7:16 a.m., 2 shots were fired in Ambler Johnston Hall- known as West AJ- a co-ed dormitory. For 30 minutes, the authorities were convinced that the shootings were a murder-suicide involving a lover's quarrel. There were 2 dead in the dorm.

At 9:26 a.m., an email was sent out notifying the students that a shooting had taken place, but it was too late. Another shooting had already started in Norris Hall at about 9:15 a.m.The doors in the whole building had been chained and the students were putting tables against the doors to keep out the shooter. Students were breaking out windows so that they could get out of the building. Jumping out of the windows caused many people to break bones, but having a broken bone was much better than the alternative.

At 9:45, the State Police were finally notified, and soon after they got there, the shooter killed himself.There are now 33 dead, including the shooter himself. There are between 15-39 people severely injured.

The first family member to be notified that their loved ones were dead were notified by the coroner and police officers, not by the campus that their children attended.

The horror continued into the night, while dead students were pulled from the building and the entire campus was locked down. Many students began to search each other out to find out who was all right. This is where the cell phone, email, and web 2.0 came in. The students were able to find out if their friend were all right by these popular methods of communication.

The shooter carried a 9mm and a 22 caliber handgun, both were found in Norris Hall.

In the aftermath of the shooting, people are calling for the resignation of campus president Dr. Charles Steiger because he didn't have the emails sent out in time to warn the other students. They also want his resignation because he didn't lock down the whole campus after the first shooting.

But how are you supposed to just lock down an entire community of 20,000 people that fast? Our local school take an hour to lock down- and they only have 500 students.