Virginia Tech and Other School Shootings’ Article Links

In light of the announcement yesterday of the findings by the investigative panel authorised by Virginia Tech University into the events surrounding the 17th April, 2007 massacre there, I thought it appropriate to put up the following article links about the panel, its findings, and some associated events accompanying them.

The first is to an AP article from Yahoo News dated to-day, about the panel and its recommendations at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070830/ap_on_re_us/virginia_tech_investigation.

Next on the list is this Washington Post article from Monday, in which it was revealed that Seung-Hui Cho, the gunman who shot and killed 32 of his teachers and classmates, had had help in his Virginia high school with a condition he suffered from, called selective mutism, but, that due to privacy laws, plus Mr. Cho's and his family's own reticence to advise the university of this condition, similar help wasn't given by the university.

It's at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/26/AR2007082601410.html?wpisrc=newsletter.

This is a similar WP article to the one above, and is found at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/27/AR2007082701710.html?tid=informbox.

Next, we have three more WP article links from, respectively, 29th August, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/28/AR2007082801307.html?tid=informbox 25th August, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/24/AR2007082402108.html?tid=informbox, and
22nd August, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/22/AR2007082201677.html, .

These are about, in descending order, an anti-violence protest at the Virginia gun shop where Cho bought one of the pistols he used in the Virginia Tech massacre, and whose wares have been tied to gun crimes in the Washington D.C. area, and as far afield as New York City, the Virginia Tech panel's investigation winding up, and that the panel was seeking reforms in campus security and notification of students and faculty in case of future campus emergencies.

From the Washington Post, we next got to Virginia Tech itself, and its on-line Virginia Tech News, with an overview, and PDF document link for those of you who want to see the full report, of the panel's proposed reforms at http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/story.php?relyear=2007&itemno=459.

Then, we go to the Daily Press, with a 20th August article about how life on the Virginia Tech campus is renewing itself for both in-coming freshmen and returning students at http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-08084sy0aug20,0,2395602.story?coll=hr_tab01_layout.

With the next three article links, we go a few months farther back in time, first to an op-ed piece posted by Scott Donahue, a Panama City, Florida, high school senior at the time this was posted on 26th April, 2007, in which he analyses the Virginia Tech shootings and some of the various solutions proposed for this problem, at http://www.newsherald.com/blogs/entry.php?entryID=473, then to John Derbyshire's "The Spirit Of Self-Defense" post on The Corner blog at the National Review's site at http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzllOTU0MDUzY2NhZDE2YmViYmRiNmE5ZjM1OWQxYTU=, and, finally, to a Newsweek interview with Wayne Lo, the perpetrator of the Simon's Rock College of Bard University in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, on the evening of 14th December, 1992, in which 3 people were killed and four wounded, before Lo surrendered to police, on the Virginia Tech shootings at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18442224/site/newsweek.

For my money, this last article's the most problematic, and I would advise taking much of what Lo says in the interview with a large sackful of salt. But, his insight into how some of the various Asian cultures tend to be reticent about talking openly about mental illness, and how members of these cultures often suppress anger until it comes flooding out, are worth seeing, if, again, to be taken with a great deal of caution.


Then, from the Toronto Star, we've an article about how the Toronto School District's policy of "safe school" transfers, designed to send students who've engaged in fighting or other such activities to other schools, and which has also been used as a tactic to break up gangs, especially at Westview High School in northwestern Toronto, may have resulted in the shooting death of 15 year-old Jordan Manners at C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute on 23rd May of this year at http://www.thestar.com/article/251354.

Am also enclosing a Wikipedia article on the C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute shooting at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C.W._Jefferys_Collegiate_InstituteShooting, so you can find out a little more about the incident yourselves.

Finally, have two more Wikipedia articles here, the first being a general description of school shootings at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Ferris, and a list of school massacres, some of which surprised the Hell out of me, especially the first one on the list, which occurred in 1890(was perpetrated by an adult male who opened fire on a group of male students with a shotgun), at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_massacres.

All in all, there should be enough article links here to either help give you something more of a perspective of the Virginia Tech shootings, or, should you wish to, begin your own explorations into the history of school shootings and school massacres in general.

Be seeing you.