Well, what a week it's been here in Virginia! The mass murder at Tech has been getting a fair amount of coverage on the Japanese news, though the gangland murder (shot twice in the back) of the mayor of Nagasaki, being a little closer to home, has been getting a lot of press. The people of Nagasaki are weeping all over the TV cameras. They seem to have been very attached to their mayor. And that's about all the news analysis I can offer, but asahi.com has more.
But closer to home it's been alternately hiding from the news and trying to find out what happened at Tech. I can't bear to listen to survivor interviews on the radio. Someone down the street lost her brother. My heart just breaks when I look at the pictures of the people who were killed. Having been in school recently, I can't help thinking of my great classmates and professors and what I would have lost if this had happened at VCU, assuming I lived through it. I'm weepy enough at this remove. I keep thinking of how the windows in VCU's engineering building are sealed (No way out there), but at least the doors are very heavy and solid. Still, the rooms are not very defensible because of the interior windows beside many of the doors. I'm used to thinking about security for my house, steel doors and so on, but a public place like a classroom building is simply supposed to be safe.
It's so so sad.
260 words | April 18, 2007 11:21 PM | Real true storyI met Tech's China historian at the AHA in Atlanta, and I have friends who went there for college.
Everyone's looking over their shoulders a bit in my line of work: I even read the university emergency procedures document (the high point of which was pointing out that using radios and cell phones near suspected bombs is not a good idea).
Posted by: Jonathan Dresner at April 19, 2007 03:13 AMI think half my high school graduating class went to Tech, or it sure seemed that way. If this had happened anytime from 1985 to 1989, some of my friends might have been killed.
I only ever went out to Blacksburg once, for my engineering project, and I can see myself back there, though the hugeness of the place is intimidating for someone who's used to petite urban campuses.
It's difficult to imagine what effective emergency procedures might be like. University as miniature police state? I'd probably feel less safe.
Posted by: 100 word minimum at April 19, 2007 08:54 AMWasn't there a discussion of arming the security guards during out time at Georgetown? A very brief, mostly absurdist discussion?
The most effective emergency procedures under conditions like the VT shootings are "get away quickly" which is hard when the shooter is roaming the halls and has chained the doors. Short of having security guards wandering the campus with bolt-cutters and guns.....
Posted by: Jonathan Dresner at April 25, 2007 05:37 PMI don't recall that at all. The security guards really didn't need to do much more than glare. That was a more innocent age.
"Get away very quickly" is probably about as good as it gets. Perhaps the new trend in academic architecture will be the escapable building: lots of exits, openable windows, heavy doors.
Posted by: 100 word minimum at April 25, 2007 07:51 PM