No problems with text alerts after latest Virginia Tech shootings

Students received alerts throughout the day.

Virginia Tech students said they received a nearly constant stream of text message and eMail updates from school officials after a gunman killed a campus police officer and himself Thursday afternoon.

Virginia Tech’s homepage provided updated information about the shootings, the suspect, and what students and faculty members should do while police scour the campus. Students and the campus’s student newspaper, the Collegiate Times, tweeted updates throughout the afternoon.

At 2:59 p.m., about three hours after the first reports of a police officer shot to death during a routine traffic stop, final exams were postponed. Exams were slated to start Dec. 9. Police would not confirm if the second body found in a nearby parking lot known as “the cage” was that of the gunman’s; however, a law enforcement official who had knowledge of the case and spoke on condition of anonymity told The Associated Press that the gunman was believed to be dead.…Read More

Virginia Tech violated law in 2007 massacre, federal report concludes

According to Politics Daily, Virginia Tech violated federal law by failing to issue “adequate warnings in a timely manner” during a rampage by a student gunman on campus three years ago, federal investigators have concluded. The school could be fined or lose federal aid over the violations outlined in the final report issued Thursday by the Department of Education.

Thirty-one people were killed in the massacre on April 16, 2007. The gunman, Seung-Hui Cho, took his own life at the scene.
“In all, more than two hours elapsed between the time University officials became aware of the first shootings (and the first murder) and the issuance of the first vague warning,” the report said. Waiting that long to alert students was in violation of the Clery Act, according to officials. Virginia Tech disputed the findings, and spokesman Larry Hincker told the Associated Press the school likely will appeal the decision. University officials have said that a finding that the school broke the law wouldn’t result in criminal charges…

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