First I wish to say what a horrific and tragic event this was. Why a man was so turmoiled that he felt killing others would release his pain. My condolences go out to the families and friends who have lost loved ones at such a young age. I know how you feel. I hope you find comfort in knowing that this man is receiving punishment for what he has done.
Now correct me if I am wrong, but aren’t schools supposed to have a system in place to evaluate and deal with people of potential danger? Cho threw up warning signs and cries for help everywhere, but even after countless attempts by a teacher to inform the university staff and police, nothing was done. The university simply said, he has the right to freedom of speech. What a pile of crap! I remember kids in middle school getting suspended from school for having “death-lists.” Is that not also freedom of speech, to voice your anger towards other individuals even if you had no intention of acting it out? If the university had acted in a different manner, all 32 of these individuals lives could have been saved.
Next I want to address the recent bomb threats at the school. Even if these threats were investigated and nothing was found, security should have been heightened. It shouldn’t have been pushed off as “oh, someone is just messing around.” It is time for people to realize that there are sick people out there and something bad can happen to you.
Last, why was the school not put on lockdown after the first incident? In 1998 after Kip Kinkel killed 2 students and injured many others at Thurston High School, I was under the assumption that all campuses put in place some sort of procedure to deal with incidents like that, and I thougth that when a shooting or something equivalent happened the school was on lockdown no matter what. Over two hours passed between the two shootings. Had the campus been locked down after the first one, 30 people would most likely still be alive today and we would only be mourning the loss of 2 students. I don’t care if they THOUGHT they had a lead and ASSUMED the shooter had fled. The key here is they did not consider all possibilities and because they failed to act in an appropriate manner, 30 lives were lost.
University officials and police had plenty of time and resources to prevent this from happening all together, and in the least, they could have saved 30 people’s lives. Personally, if one of those 32 people were one of my children, I would be asking the school a lot of questions.