SCHOOL SHOOTINGS: WILLFUL BLINDNESS

Willful blindness is a term used in criminal law referring to someone who intentionally fails to be informed about matters that would make the person criminally liable. The phrase describes an “attempt to avoid civil or criminal liability for a wrongful act by intentionally putting oneself in a position to be unaware of facts which create liability.” Willful blindness often masquerades as “I don’t remember,” “I don’t recall,” or “I forget.”

 “Willful blindness” is conscious avoidance of the truth.  Unfortunately, the conscious avoidance of the truth has been a prime characteristic of authorities in Virginia before, during, and after both school shootings in the old Dominion. In the case of the Appalachian School of Law, school authorities feigned lack of knowledge the killer was violent, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

In the case of Virginia Tech, school officials made similar claims. The loss of memory on the part of police, health care, and school authorities reached near epidemic authorities. Dr. Cathye Betzel, a licensed clinical psychologist, cannot remember her conversation about Cho’s disturbing behavior with English Department Chairperson Lucinda Roy. Professor Roy remembers it quite well.

Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum remained silent for months about the timing of when Virginia Tech had a person of interest following the double homicide in West Ambler Johnston Hall. The discrepancy (the school said it identified a person of interest before 7:30 a.m. when in fact it was approximately an hour later), gave the school a fig leaf excuse for not locking down and warning.

Virginia Tech’s Police Chief Flinchum’s lie of omission made it all the way into the first version of the Governor’s Review Panel Report. Lying by omission, also known as exclusionary detailing, is defined as lying by either omitting certain facts or by failing to correct a misconception.

If you read the transcript of the trial against Virginia Tech in the suit of the Pryde and Peterson families who lost their daughters on April 16, 2007, the school and police officials repeatedly cannot remember, or do not recall this or that. It is as if collective dementia struck Blacksburg and the Virginia Tech campus with a vengeance.  (To be continued)