USA: Virginia Tech students release 32 white balloons for shooting victims before returning to classes

Record ID: 346240

  • Title: USA: Virginia Tech students release 32 white balloons for shooting victims before returning to classes
  • Date: 24th April 2007
  • Summary: (W4) BLACKSBURG, VIRGINIA UNITED STATES (APRIL 23, 2007) (REUTERS) CLOSE UP OF A NOTE LAID AT THE MEMORIAL FOR SEUNG-HUI CHO STUDENTS WALKING CARRYING WHITE BALLOONS (32 BALLOONS, ONE FOR EACH STUDENT WHO AS KILLED) US FLAG / BELL TOLLING FOR VICTIMS CLOSE UP OF A PHOTOGRAPH OF ONE OF THE VICTIMS STUDENTS STANDING VARIOUS OF SEVERAL SINGLE WHITE BALLOONS BEING BEING RELEASED BELL TOLLING THOUSANDS OF MAROON AND ORANGE BALLOONS BEING RELEASED CROWD CHANTS FOR "HOKIES" (NICKNAME FOR VIRGINIA TECH STUDENTS) VARIOUS OF CROWD (SOUNDBITE) (English) AARON KAHN, STUDENT SAYING: "It was nice, I felt a good catharsis coming from the silence and the bells. The whole ceremony was quite nice." (SOUNDBITE) (English) CHAITANYA KAPADIA: FRESHMAN STUDENT SAYING: "It felt really good to be back on campus. I was looking forward to it since I went home last week and it was a pretty moving ceremony. I t was nice to see that this many people care and that there's always people with you." CHAPLAIN IN MIDST OF STUDENTS (SOUNDBITE) (English) KANOKWAN MOATAPOT, STUDENT FROM THAILAND SAYING: "You just feel like you see a lot of people and think everybody wants life to be normal and they try to come back to study, even if they are still sad, but everybody try." VARIOUS OF STUDENTS WALKING TO CLASS
  • Embargoed: 9th May 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVA9OGXWOKMIRVVMZJQ4Z7UYWWIX
  • Story Text: Virginia Tech students return to campus seeking healing and a return to normalcy one week after the massacre that killed 32 people.

    Classes resumed on Monday (April 23) on the campus of Virginia Tech University, one week after a gunman killed 32 people, before killing himself.
    Bells tolled 32 times as 32 white balloons were released, marking the moments a week earlier when gunman Seung-Hui Cho, 23, was shooting teachers and classmates in a nearby building.
    Seconds later, a thousand orange and maroon balloons were released, filling the cloudless sky with the school colors.
    Thousands of students, university staff and town mourners gathered on the drill field to watch the ceremonies in silence, some weeping quietly, others hugging in grief.
    When it was over, students quietly headed to class, ready to return to normal after a week of mourning, emotional memorials and the glare of the international media spotlight.
    Senior physics major, Aaron Kahn told Reuters, "It was nice, I felt a good catharsis coming from the silence and the bells. The whole ceremony was quite nice."
    People from across the college town of Blacksburg were on hand to offer support to the grieving university community, and messages, banners, and cards of support flowed in from around the world.
    At one makeshift memorial, flags from Canada, Peru and Israel were placed among bouquets of flowers to remember the international students and teachers killed in the rampage by Cho, a mentally ill English major.
    Chaplains in green vests crisscrossed campus, a group of volunteers handed out bottles of water to returning students, and handlers with therapy dogs wandered around, offering their pets for hugs.
    The university has said classes are optional for all students, and courses held in Norris Hall, where most of the shootings took place, have been relocated. The building remains closed and cordoned off with yellow crime-scene tape.
    The dormitory where the first two victims died has been reopened.
    Questions remain about how Cho, who had been investigated for two stalking reports in 2005 and treated for mental illness, was able to buy the two guns used in his rampage.
    The university administration and campus police have also faced criticism for their handling of the first shooting in the dormitory, which took place more than two hours before Cho turned up on the other side of campus to kill 30 others.
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