Spending
millions of dollars on security systems in Virginia cannot hide the fact the
state is woefully lacking in measures necessary to make the Virginia’s schools as
safe as they need to be—Virginia does not hold politicians, school leaders, law enforcement
personnel, and mental health care workers accountable for incompetence;
incompetence that results in death and injury.
People in
positions of authority need to be answerable for their actions or inactions
resulting in the murder of students and faculty. But that has not happened here
in The Old Dominion. In fact, quite
the opposite has taken place. There have been massive cover-ups involving the
power of the state, the legal system all the way to the Virginia Supreme Court,
some members of law enforcement, and mental health providers. People we put our
trust in have come together in an unholy alliance to conceal the truth.
Virginia’s power elite moved heaven
earth to conceal the truth and protect individuals and their careers—even if it
has meant out-and-out lying to the public.
Here is the problem: safety boils
down to the human factor. A king’s ransom can be spent on consultants as well
alarms and warnings, but it takes a human being to activate the warning or turn
on the alarm. When the human does not act, million-dollar systems are
worthless.
In both school shootings in
Virginia—the Appalachian School of Law (three killed and three wounded), and
Virginia Tech (31 killed and 17 wounded), inept and mediocre leaders doomed
innocent students, faculty, and staff to death and injury through their unwillingness to heed the killers’ warning signs before and during the rampages.
January 16,
2017 will mark the 15th anniversary of the shooting at the
Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, Virginia; April 16, 2017 will be the 10th
anniversary of the Virginia Tech rampage.
This posting
is the first of a series I will post between now and the end of April 2017. I
plan on reviewing the deceit, the cover-ups, the hypocrisy, and the lies that
have surrounded both Virginia school shootings. I also will also look at the
gun violence crisis this nation faces.
One of the
best ways to honor the memory of those who were lost to gun violence and those
who were wounded, is to keep fighting to keep guns out of the hands of those
who are dangerously mentally ill as well as individuals who are a threat to
themselves and others. Don’t give up the fight. (To be continued)
