SCHOOL SHOOTINGS = DOMESTIC TERRORISM

School shootings are a form of domestic terrorism; there is no doubt of that. What else would you call it when professors and instructors step in front of a class wondering, Will this be the day someone brings a gun in and kills us all? One of my sons is a professor and the last time I saw him, he expressed that concern—he said he wonders will a shooting happen in his classroom.

How can such fear of a domestic terrorist attack on our school grounds lead to an atmosphere of learning? How can anyone concentrate when he or she is looking over his or her shoulder?

The sad truth is that the parallels between foreign terrorist attacks and school rampages predate the acts of violence.

George Tenet, the former head of the CIA, in his book At The Center Of The Storm, wrote that one of his frustrations is that elected officials ignored repeated warning throughout 2000 and 2001 of a terrorist attack. Tenet says that in 1998 he wrote eight letters to Presidents Clinton and Bush warning of a terrorist attack. As far back as 1995, a National Intelligence Estimate (the most prestigious U.S. intelligence publication) warned of a foreign terrorist attack. And then there is the infamous CIA article in The President’s Daily Brief in August 2001 asserting that Osama Bin Laden was determined to strike in the United States. Decision-makers downplayed or ignored all the warning signs.

In the case of the Virginia Tech massacre, the warnings too went unheeded. Six professors complained about Cho’s odd behavior and the violence in his writing. One, Nicki Giovanni, threatened to resign (she feared for her safety and the safety of her students) unless Cho was removed from her class. Cho was taken to a mental health facility for evaluation after he was deemed a threat to himself and others. That facility released him without talking to the counselor who warned he was a threat—or even reading her report. Then-Virginia Tech police chief Wendell Flinchum, did not warn the campus that a shooter was on the loose after the double homicide in the middle of the campus. Two and one half hours later, 30 students and faculty were slaughtered in Norris Hall and another 17 were wounded.

Sadly, the parallels between foreign and domestic terrorist attacks on this country are strikingly parallel in everything from failure to heed warning signs, to cover-ups after the fact.

             

WHY REVISIT THE VIRGINIA TECH TRAGEDY?

People ask me why keep reviewing and analyzing the Virginia Tech tragedy? It is now almost nine years later; what is the point? The answer is really quite simple. A cover up of massive proportions took place; the shooting was investigated with an idea of preventing litigation; and the law has been broken in connection with the lawsuit filed by the parents of two of the dead students.

            

To paraphrase a high-level retired CIA official’s response to the question of why the Agency continues to go over past mistakes: Because we are looking to the future and need to understand the past. If we are going to prevent these shootings, we need to know what went wrong, what went right, where the missed signals were, what the pressures were like, and how people’s biases, prejudices, and desire to protect their careers played into what happened. If you do not know where you have been, you cannot know how you got to where you are. And you cannot prevent future mistakes or rampages.

There is another reason for revisiting the Tech tragedy; to help the friends and families of those killed or wounded to find the truth. It is impossible for anyone to begin healing from one of these school shootings when he or she knows the truth is shrouded in lies.

How can any parent or spouse move on from the murder of a child or mate, when people in positions of trust and authority spout half-truths and gloss over the incompetence that led to the deaths of 32 people and wounding of 17 others?

The Virginia Tech cover-up has been of such monumental proportions that it may take a lifetime to get at the truth.

FALWELL’S FOLLY

           Following the terrorist mass killings in San Bernadino, California in December 2015, Jerry Falwell, Jr., the president of faith-based Liberty University, urged his students to get concealed carry permits and buy guns. In his comments he said, “If more good people had concealed carry permits, then we could end those Muslims before they walk in.”

            What happened to the commandment “thou shalt not kill?” To urge young people, with their raging hormones, to get guns is asking for a bloodbath. If people are shooting each other on school grounds how will the police to know who is the killer and who is defending himself or herself?

            In my research on school shootings I have interviewed campus police. All are adamantly opposed to arming students. What does Falwell know that police and security specialists don’t know?  The answer is nothing.

            Then there is the problem of discrimination against a group of people with a different religion. Reverend Falwell seems to forget (or not know) that Muslim-Americans are fighting and dying for this country. Muslims Americans have served in the U.S. military for over 200 years and currently there are over 5,000 Muslim Americans in the various branches of the U.S. armed forces.

Yes, we are targets of both domestic and foreign terrorists, but mindless, emotional responses to these tragedies from leaders only make the situation worse and do not do anything to prevent these killings.  

VIRGINIA’S PERVERTED PRIORITIES

            Virginia’s fiscal priorities are at best askew with the needs of the average person; at worst they are a demonstration of incompetence and irresponsibility. The state’s spending is so badly off the mark that it makes Washington, D.C. look like a paragon of virtue in dealing with the needs of the citizens of this country.

            Take a look at the facts. By law, an adjunct professor at a state university can be paid no more than $2,550.00 per undergraduate class. If an adjunct teaches three classes a semester twice a year, that is $7,650.00 per semester or $15,300.00 per academic year. If he or she is lucky enough to get a course for the summer, add another $2,550.00. So, we are now at a grand total of $17,850.00. Who can live on that?

            Virginia has been the site of two school shootings: Appalachian School of Law, January 16, 2002, three dead and three wounded; Virginia Tech, April 16, 2007, 32 dead and 17 wounded.

            Nearly everyone agrees that more needs to be done in tackling mental health problems as part of ending carnage on our campuses. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the pay for the average person in “Residential Intellectual and Developmental Disability, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse” is $37,030.00.

            Take a look at some salaries at Virginia Tech, the site of this country’s worst mass school shooting: The Head Football Coach makes $3.2 million dollars a year, the Associate Head Coach makes $925,000.00; the Offensive Coordinator makes $450,000.00, the Special Teams/Tight Ends Coach makes $408,000.00, and the Assistant Head Coach/Defensive Line Coach makes $308,000.00. In addition four more members of the football coaching staff make $260,000.00 each a year and a fifth makes $200,000.00.

            Most galling of all is then-President of Virginia Tech Charles Steger, the man whose inaction played a roll in the slaughter of 32 people and wounding of 17 others at Norris Hall, made $836,886.00 the year he retired.

            Another upsetting fact, under Virginia law, the families of those killed at Virginia Tech could get no more than $100,000.00, despite the fact that gross negligence was involved.

            What are you thinking Virginia House of Delegates? Why would you cap wages so that people are paid below the poverty level? What kind of people are we sending to the State Legislature?

NOW ITS LA ROCHE CANADA

            A 13-year-old boy shot and killed four people yesterday in La Roche, Saskatchewan, Canada. The young man apparently began his rampage at home; killing his two siblings and then went to his high school where he killed a teacher and a female student. The shooting is apparently one of Canada’s worst.

            The boy’s name has not been released, but a fellow student expressed dismay because the shooter was a “quiet person who always seemed so happy.”

Once again, based on fragmentary evidence, it appears that mental illness played a role in the shooter’s actions. According to news reports, the shooter posted his intentions on Facebook before murdering his two brothers and then going on to the school.

One of the questions yet to be answered is, were there other warning signs?

DEEDS IS RIGHT TO SUE

Virginia’s privatized mental health care system is a shambles and may be riddled with corruption and incompetence.

            State Senator Creigh Deeds is absolutely right to file a $6 million wrongful death suit against the state of Virginia, a mental health evaluator, and an agency that did not find a hospital bed for his mentally ill son. That son, denied a bed when some were available, ended up repeatedly stabbing his father and then killing himself.

            The sad truth is when young Austin Deeds was having a psychotic incident and needed hospitalization; the Deeds family was told there were no beds available. Beds were available; the young man could have been evaluated and treated. The person checking on bed-availability didn’t have the correct phone number. This is incompetence at its worst—it cost a life and brought agony to a family trying to get help for their seriously ill son.

            Governor McAuliffe, since the Deeds tragedy, has signed a law that allows more time to find beds for psychiatric patients. The law also compels the state to maintain a “real-time” online registry of available beds. If you are dealing with people who cannot even get the phone numbers correct, how can you expect them to operate and maintain a “real-time” online registry of available beds.  The actions of the state legislature and the Governor are too little, too late for the Deeds family.

            The closing of state-run mental health facilities is coming home to roost; it certainly did for the Deeds family. It is hard to believe that a state facility could do a poorer job than did the Rockbridge Community Services Board in dispatching Michael Gentry to evaluate young Deeds.

            The fact is that the Virginia legislature repeatedly cut mental health funding; it has closed hospitals, and turned the mental health program over to incompetents who cannot even get a phone number straight.

            The Virginia General Assembly should be ashamed of itself for tightening the budget at the expense of one of the most vulnerable segments of society—the mentally ill.