Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Let Them Marinate in Their Guilt

The jury decision (in the Pryde and Petersen lawsuit) that Virginia Tech was negligent for not warning the campus after the double homicide at Ambler West Johnston Hall is, once again, proof of the bungling incompetence of Charles Steger’s administration at that school. The Department of Education has already decided that Virginia Tech was guilty of violating the Clery Act for not issuing a warning.

Virginia Tech is one of this nation’s premier schools. It is an outstanding institution of higher learning. Our youngest son is a graduate of the engineering school at Virginia Tech—I am so proud of the education he got there; I am so ashamed that the school is run by such inept people.

To those who say Steger and school officials shouldn’t be held accountable for their inaction, I would remind you that school’s advertise they offer a safe and secure environment for learning, and that the courts have ruled that schools have a “special relationship with students” and do have a responsibility for their safety. Furthermore, how can anyone justify issuing the following warnings and not issuing a warning on April 16, 2007, when there were bloody footprints leading away from a double homicide in the middle of the campus? Tech had

--Issued a campus-wide warning when a convict, William Morva, escaped from a Blacksburg jail and killed two people and there was no evidence Morva was on campus.

--Issued a campus-wide warning about measles.

--Issued a campus-wide warning about mold in the library.

--Issued a campus-wide warning about mumps.

--Issued a campus-wide warning about a bomb threat even though the school knew it was probably false.

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