Va. Tech panel: Monitor threatening students

updated 3:34 p.m. ET Aug. 22, 2007

BLACKSBURG, Va. - Virginia Tech’s internal review of the campus massacre recommended Wednesday more monitoring of troubled students, classroom locks and other security measures.

The panel made no assessment of the actions school staff took April 16, when more than two hours elapsed between the time student gunman Seung-Hui Cho killed two students in a dormitory and the time he killed 30 other people and himself in a classroom building.

University President Charles Steger named committees to look at counseling services, security and communication following the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

A panel appointed by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine is investigating the handling of the shootings as well as Cho’s background, and its report is due out next week.

President defends decisions
At a news conference, Steger said the investigation of the university’s actions should be done by an outside panel, not the school, and that he had recommended that the governor form the panel that will issue its report next week.

He also again defended the university’s decision not to lock down buildings after the first two shootings.

“Such a lockdown is simply not feasible on a campus that’s the size of a small city,” he said.

In calling for creation of a team of police, counselors and other university personnel to monitor students who may pose a threat to themselves or others, the counseling committee said Tech needs a better system to deal with such students.

The university also should improve security with interior locks on classroom doors and Internet-based message boards alerting the campus of emergencies, the security and communications panels said.

Ways to improve security
The university’s security committee recommended instructing students on what to do in emergencies; installing interior locks on 157 general assignment classrooms; removing “drop bar” door handles that can be chained, and possibly installing electronic key card access to academic and administrative buildings.

Dormitories currently are accessed with key cards, and Tech recently required that the cards be used 24 hours a day.

The four classrooms that Cho entered in Norris Hall could not be locked from inside, and he had chained exit doors with bar handles to delay police entry into the building.

MORE FROM CRIME & COURTS

Crime & courts Section Front

Suspect in cop-killings eludes police Ex-Ohio autoworker tried for 27,900 deaths   Man arrested in Salvation Army kettle theft   Lawyer: Suspect in Kan. shooting is misogynistic Knox’s parents investigated for defamation ‘Text-a-tip’ programs help police Alleged Thanksgiving killer sought in Mich. Public defender strangled to death at home Cleveland bodies case hard on nearby sausage shop Crime & courts Section Front   Add Crime & courts headlines to your news reader: