- Title: USA: Students return a week after campus killings
- Date: 23rd April 2007
- Summary: A POLICE CAR AND CAMPUS POLICE ON MOTORBIKES HARPER HALL, THE RESIDENCE WHERE SEUNG-HUI CHO, THE GUNMAN RESPONSIBLE, USED TO RESIDE NORRIS HALL, THE BUILDING WHERE 30 STUDENTS WERE KILLED BY CHO, WITH POLICE TAPE IN FRONT OF IT THE CHIEF OF VIRGINIA TECH CAMPUS POLICE, WENDELL FLINCHUM (IN UNIFORM) TALKING TO A MAN VARIOUS OF A MEMORIAL FOR THE VIRGINIA TECH SHOOTING VICTI
- Embargoed: 8th May 2007 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Usa
- Country: USA
- Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Education
- Reuters ID: LVA3R1IU82GTC2ZF43S0TVEZ6IFA
- Story Text: Students prepare to resume classes at Virginia Tech, a week after a student gunman killed 32 people on the campus. A week after the Virginia Tech shooting which left 33 dead, campus life on the sprawling university began to slowly ease back into a normal routine, with students returning to their dorms, often accompanied by their parents.
The sun shone down brightly on the campus on Sunday (April 22) as students sweated as they lugged their luggage back into residence halls, while others played volleyball and football.
Patrick Drioma, a freshman who is doing double major in Physics and Mathematics, was returning to the campus from his home in New Jersey. He said that he was feeling good about returning to campus. While he thought the shooting was an unfortunate event, he said it did not make feel him that Virginia Tech (VT) was any less safe.
The feeling of safety that students and visiting parents said they were confident of, seemed to be strengthened by the visibly strong presence of police officers throughout the campus. The campus police chief, WENDELL FLINCHUM, who was earlier criticized for the response of the campus police to the shootings last Monday, could be seen talking to the Virginia Tech community this Sunday, with many coming up to him and thanking him for his efforts.
Throughout the campus, several memorials that had come up earlier in the week were visited in large numbers by students, parents and general visitors to the campus. One memorial for the victims of the worst college campus shooting in the history of the United States, emerged at the War Memorial Chapel, overlooked the centrally located Drillfield, in the heart of the campus. Flowers of different hues piled up as people silently said their prayers for the students and faculty members who would never come back.
But the Virginia Tech campus was definitely making an effort to come back, even as it remembered and commemorated the victims. Classes are to begin on Monday (April 23, 2007) and many of the students said they had mixed feelings about returning.
"I have a lot of mixed emotions about it, part of me is glad that the university has decided to continue classes, and the other part of me, like most students are going to be feeling on Monday morning, is anxious, anxiety about having to go to class because of what had happened just a week ago," said Amy Berry, a Senior who is majoring in Communications at Virginia Tech.
She was accompanied by her father Andrew Berry who said that he had no apprehensions about dropping his daughter back to the campus. He said that despite the criticism that the university had received by many about the time gap between the two shooting sprees on Monday, he felt that it had done its best and that he had faith that the university and its security personnel had done their best.
The campus and its many little memorials were peopled not just by returning students and parents on Sunday, but also by Virginia Tech alumni who made an effort to visit the campus and be part of the community feeling that they said defined VT. "I drove up so that I could be part of the sense of the community we have at Virginia Tech and to come here and walk the campus, and walk the places I've always walked a hundred times just to know that you know it's still Virginia Tech, even though this horrible thing has happened, that it's still my school," said Amber Erickson, an alum who drove up from Florida for the day.
Not far from where Erickson paid her tribute at the War Memorial Chapel, at one side of Drillfield there was another memorial of 33 separate stones set in a semi circle, each surrounded by flowers, notes and photographs commemorating all the people killed last week. There was also a stone for Seung-Hui Cho, the South Korean shooter, who shot himself after killing 32 students.
Amidst the flowers and also an American flag left at Cho's stone, there were notes that said that he was forgiven. Another said that if the student writing the note met another person like Cho, that he/she would make sure to reach out and try and do things differently, so as to help.
And all across campus, as people laid down flowers, hugged each other, and walked their dogs, they also began laying the foundation for the resumption of a semester, with one student saying that finishing the semester would be one way of saying that Virginia Tech, was down but not out.
With just a couple of weeks left before the end of the school year, the university has said students who do not want to return to classes will be accommodated. But while classes are optional, an atmosphere of stalwart defiance permeated the campus on Sunday and students said they expect the school will be ready for business on Monday. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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