There was a woman on HDNet last night, I’m not sure of her name or even her capacity, whether she was a doctor, psychiatrist, whatever, but she did seem to be fairly experienced and well versed in grief counseling, ways to handle trauma, etc. Her counsel was that parents are going to react to this situation by wanting to draw their kids in, they’ll want the kids to come home from the campus immediately, to hold them and protect them, to both keep them safe and know themselves that they are.
Many of the students on the other hand will find the place of most comfort to be there on campus with all the other students that now share the duration of the experience with them, are most able to identify with exactly what they’ve been through. Completely understandabe, that. What an emotional, unprecedented, unforgettable drama, the event itself and the shared response since. Who better to identify with than your classmates, where better than on campus, the convocation, with friends.
I don’t know what your peosonal situation is but just wanted to put that out there. There will be needs from those who were there and from those who painfully had to watch and fret from a distance.
Thoughts, prayers, concern and hope all extended to you and yours.
I’m so very, very sorry Lord Il Palazzo. I’ve been following along avidly and praying for better outcomes for everyone, and it breaks my heart as well to see all the pain and suffering that everyone is experiencing. And will undoubtedly deal with forever. But I am grateful that you’ve shared these things with us, to help understand more nuances than we could otherwise conceive and to give us one tiny grasp of what others must learn to handle and overcome. You and your loved ones have our best wishes sent out the US over. The same applies to the other Dopers who’ve posted about all this as well. Stay as strong as you humanely can, hold on to comfort and continue to convey the excellent character that you’ve displayed. Y’all are the rock to the rest of us. Godspeed.
I told my classmates at the U. of No. Colo. yesterday about your posts, and most of them are lurking today to read this thread. I also have friends in school at CU and Colorado State who are following the thread. We all send you and your fellow Hokies our prayers and good wishes. I am so sorry to hear that the girl you were awaiting word on was killed. It’s all such an enormous waste.
My daughter lives in Blacksburg. I was at work when I heard the news and immediately called her. I got no answer so I left a message. I called my wife who began panicking. After a few more tries my daughter answered, said “Quit calling, I’m sleeping,” and hung up.
Thank you all for your prayers and your support. I’m doing well but the girl’s best friend is in really bad shape (emotionally speaking of course.) If anyone needs your thoughts and prayers it would be her, along with all the other friends and families who lost those near and dear to them on Monday. God bless them in their time of grief and God bless you for your support.
A good friend of mine moved to Korea to teach and learned this just the other day- horrifying a few of her students in the process.
If I had to guess about the meaning of that name, I would say it’s probably a character from one of his plays. Richard McBeef, Mr. Brownstone, Ismail Ax… you could call it a pattern.
I was traveling for work yesterday, so I didn’t know until today that the first victim (the girl in the dorm) is the cousin of a woman who I hired a few years ago and works with me.
Apparently the girl wasn’t dating the shooter, but was “only nice to him”.
I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that I know someone who knows one of the victims, but I’m rattled anyway.
I just happened to be in D.C. on business this week when this horrific, tragic and senseless act occurred. While this is a loss for all of us, my thoughts and prayers are especially with all those who experienced a loss either directly or indirectly through friends or other loved ones.
Originally I was going to see if there were any D.C. dopers who wanted to meet for coffee, as I don’t get down here very often, but this event kinda made me not really want to go out - an emotion that I imagine was shared by many. I look forward to my next trip here, under happier circumstances.
Just tonight my son told me that one of the victims is the daughter of his French teacher.
My best friend at work told me the killer lived one block from her.
Another one of my friends said her daughter at VT lost three acquaintances on Monday including Emily Hilscher.
Not nearly enough degrees of separation for me.
A huge number of students (including my roommate) have left the area to be with family. Looking out the window of my dorm room, even at 1:30 in the morning, I’d usually see a good number of lights in the dorm across the quad from mine but there are almost none.
Many of the dining halls have been shut until Sunday, when students are expected to start coming back. This means that I no longer have work this week as I had thought and also knocks out my half plan of adding an extra shift in to help pass the time. Oh well.
There were no major campus events today and I don’t expect that there will be for a few days. Tomorrow I’m thinking of biking around campus to see what kinds of memorials have been set up. I know that there’s one on the drill field in front of Burruss (where the vigil was held.) There are flowers and candles in the center and around them a semicircle of rocks (I’m told that there are 32 of them, though it was dark when I went by last night so I didn’t take time to count.) Outside the ring are a number (4 or 6 I think) of big boards that people have been writing messages on.
There’s probably something set up up near AJ. I’ll have to go take a look. The area around Norris was cordoned off as of last night so there is nothing set up outside of that building. I think the drill field is a better place for the memorial anyways. It’s the center of campus. Just about every student walks across it at some point during the day (at least those who live on campus.)
That’s about it. I’ll continue to keep you all posted. Thanks to everyone who’s been so supportive of me and the rest of my college family through this time of crisis. Your thoughts and prayers mean a lot to all of us here in Blacksburg.
It turns out that mental health checks are already a part of the federal background check. Obviously, however, they aren’t very good. Apparently, mentally disturbed people will slip through the net as long as they’re smart enough to lie about it. Apparently, many states refuse to comply with federal rules about reporting people who are “mentally defective.”
That terminology is from a law passed in 1968. There have been attempts to fine it down a bit, but they have never gone all the way through the Schoolhouse Rock process.
Apparently many (most?) state agencies ignore this requirement.
I think it’s not so much a matter of falling through the ATF’s cracks, as it is one of mental disturbance being hard to pin down in a way that would show up in a background check. People, like the English department head, did try to get help for him, but he wasn’t classified as a danger to others. That’s hardly the ATF’s fault. They don’t do psych evals themselves; they can only judge by psych evals that have already been filed.
A man who coworkers describe as upset about the events this week at VT barricaded himself in bldg. 44 at NASA, Clear Lake with two hostages. William Phillips Jr. has apparently killed one hostage and himself. Reports are the other hostage escaped. Details still unfolding, sketchy.
This and the other copycat threats at schools around the country are most troubling. Really don’t understand what drives some people. Maybe a lot more folks are sick than we could ever realize or anticipate.
This is kind of interesting. From The Times of London: “American Psycho.”
“When Cho killed 32 people at Virginia Tech, the horrific slaughter revealed not only the poisons lurking in popular culture but the crisis of young males in a feminised society.”