The news yesterday was dominated – as you’d expect – by the Virginia Tech shootings. News sources provided continuous “coverage”. They speculated endlessly about the causes of the shooting and the motivations of the shooter. As I arrived home yesterday, CNN Headline News was running some woman who was convinced that the shooting was caused bythe “degeneration” of American culture and the prevalence of violent video games. Of course, no one yet knew a thing about the shooter except that he may have been “Asian”. Other news outlets were – more or less – doing the same thing.
Now we know that the shooter was a South Korean English major. So much for the whole “degeneration of American culture” argument. But I’m sure there will be equally pointless avenues of speculation available to today’s news shows.
As a college educator, I feel like I ought to say something about the whole affair. A day later, I’m still at a loss as to exactly what I should say. This was a terrible tragedy. More that thirty people were killed. What can I possibly say about that?
Was it preventable? At this point, it’s difficult to say. We don’t know why the shooter did what he did, or if there were any obvious signs that he was about to go on a rampage. And how do we protect students from someone who is determined to take his own life and as many others as he possibly can – while maintaining an environment where students can learn?
Could the school have handled the situation any better? Perhaps, but it’s entirely too easy to armchair-quarterback what the school “should” have done after the events have already happened. About all I can say on that matter is that I’m surprised the administration didn’t cancel classes after the first shooting. But … I work at a small school with no on-campus housing. At my school, canceling classes would have cleared nearly everyone from the campus. That’s not going to be the case at Virginia Tech.
I might have more to say on this later. Right now, I’m still … stunned.