On Monday, Lions became Hokies.
Across the nation, college campuses are mourning the death of 33 Virginia Tech students, in what is being called the single largest mass murder in American history.
“While the entire nation is mourning the tragedy that occurred at Virginia Tech, it is especially troubling to those of us in academe,” said Texas A&M-Commerce president Dr. Keith McFarland. “Our thoughts and prayers go out for all those individuals impacted by the unfortunate events in Blacksburg.”
Monday’s events hit especially hard to Agriculture department head and professor, Dr. Pat Bagley, who received his Ph. D from Virginia Tech.
“Thinking about the places such things could happen, Virginia Tech is the last place that I would imagine such incident could happen. In the three years, me and my wife lived there, we rarely used to close our door.”
VT campus police, contending with protecting 28,000 students, could not monitor every building in the midst of the morning’s chaos.
“With numerous entrances and classes spread across the buildings, it would not have been possible to safeguard the buildings. It would have been even a bigger mistake to send the students back to the dorms because the shooter was there initially.”
Bagley said that in hindsight VT police should have been more productive. But having such a discrepancy in time from the first dorm shooting to the next in classroom buildings, would pose problems for any police department, he said.
“It’s a situation hard to believe. It is like a nightmare. One would possibly think, these things happen only in another country or another place,” Bagley said. “Between this and Columbine a serious question has been raised regarding safety of schools whether it be K-12 or higher education.”
As many, Bagley is mourning the loss of the victims and what it means for his alma mater.
“I’m pretty saddened for the victims and their family. It’s a sad day for us all. The thing that bothers me most is, now, they won’t think about quality education, but the tragedy of [Monday] when they think about Virginia Tech,” Bagley said.