Cuccinelli to Appeal Department of Education Ruling

Some actions are legal but morally unconscionable. Attorney General Cuccinelli’s dealings with the Virginia Tech families and that tragedy fall into that category.

The latest example is Cuccinelli’s appeal the Department of Education’s (DoE) ruling that Virginia Tech violated federal law by not issuing an earlier warning on April 16, 2007. He calls the DoE decision “Monday morning quarterbacking at its worst.” But his own actions are tantamount to a cover-up.

Cuccinelli claims that the school administration “acted entirely appropriately” and did not violate federal law in not warning the campus for two hours and fifteen minutes after the first double homicide. Look at the facts:

--At 0715: two students were murdered

--At 0800: the Virginia Tech Office of Continuing Education locked down

--At 0815: two senior officials at Virginia Tech talked to their families and raised the shootings

--At 0823: the police cancelled all bank deposits

--At 0845: a Policy Group member emailed the Governor’s office stating, “a gunman (is) on the loose”

--At 0852: the Blacksburg schools locked down

--At 0852: the Executive Director of Government Relations, with an office adjacent to the school president’s, directed that doors to his office be locked

--Between 0900 and 0915: the Virginia Tech Veterinary College locked down

-- At 0926: the university Policy Group issued an email warning to the campus

--Between 0940 and 0951: Thirty people were murdered and 17 wounded

Cuccenilli also fails to mention evidence that some school officials were aware of errors in the crime timeline while the governor’s Review Panel was preparing its report, and said nothing. Cuccenilli, isn’t there a law regarding withholding of information pertinent to a crime investigation?