Virginia Tech Fined $55K Over Shooting Rampage

[RPB]

Virginia Tech Fined $55K Over Shooting Rampage
Feds say officials did a poor job alerting campus to 2007 shooter
By John Johnson, Newser Staff

Posted Mar 29, 2011 4:10 PM CDT

http://www.newser.com/story/115208/virg ... mpage.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

and

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/edu ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A federal official wrote in a letter to Virginia Tech President Charles W. Steger that the penalty for failing to provide timely warnings about the threat to the campus on the day of the massacre should be greater.

“Virginia Tech’s violations warrant a fine far in excess of what is currently permissible under the statute,” wrote Mary E. Gust, an official in the Education Department’s Office of Federal Student Aid.

It also bolstered the view of some victims’ relatives that the university was negligent in efforts to protect the campus community.

In June 2008, an $11 million settlement was approved for most of the families of victims of the massacre, including those who were wounded. It was meant to shield the state from further legal action.

But the families of Erin Peterson and Julia Pryde, two students who were slain, did not participate in the settlement. Their lawsuit, seeking damages for negligence, is pending in Montgomery County Circuit Court in Virginia.

more at the two above links

[RPB]

The comments on the wash post site are enough to make anyone

They are all supporting the school which failed to protect people and still fails to protect people and still disallows self-protection....

Compilation of links to other papers where that article/press release appeared
http://article.wn.com/view/2011/03/29/V ... ng_rampag/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[OldCurlyWolf]

It should have been that low only if they rescinded their policy of creating a weapons free crime zone. Otherwise it should have been at least 1 mil per person shot, not killed, but shot. that would have been about 1,000 times more that what they were fined.

[RPB]

yes it was absolutely foreseeable since by 2007 the 2002 government report had been out for FIVE years already and showed that police response time is irrelevant and that students faculty and staff are the first responders.

[PappaGun]

I don't see the point in fining a public institution in this case.

Yes, they should pay civily.

But 55K going from one beaurocracy to another?

Add it to the victim fund.

[Ameer]

If the responsible people had to pay the fine, it would make a difference, but forcing the taxpayers to foot the bill is pointless. Unless their intent is to look like they're doing something other than helping future criminals hurt more people.

[WildBill]

I don't see the point in fining a public institution in this case.

Yes, they should pay civily.

But 55K going from one beaurocracy to another?

Add it to the victim fund.

This fine does not punish the guilty or pay the innocent.

[RPB]

Perhaps the Taxpayers being fined for failing to elect Legislators who would make the public University enact measures to protect Students or allow self-protection after they had already been informed 5 years earlier that Police rarely arrive in time and that Faculty, Staff and Students are always the first responders ... is justified. Sort of a punitive damages for apathy which allowed institutions to deny rights. Though that is a small slap on the wrist.

I wish I was a juror on the two families of Students who opted out of the class settlement and are pursuing their own cases against the University though, 25 million each sounds about right for a start.