Education Department Fines Virginia Tech $55G for Response to Shootings

Parent Cafe
1

<p>
[quote]
RICHMOND, Va. -- The U.S. Department of Education has fined Virginia Tech $55,000 for waiting too long to notify students during a 2007 shooting rampage.
...
The department found in December that Virginia Tech violated the law when officials waited two hours to notify campus after a gunman shot two students in a dormitory early on April 16, 2007.
He killed 30 others two hours later, just after the alert went out.
The university says it will appeal.</p>

<p>Read more: Education</a> Department Fines Virginia Tech $55G for Response to Shootings - FoxNews.com

[/quote]

Education</a> Department Fines Virginia Tech $55G for Response to Shootings - FoxNews.com</p>

<p>I didn't realize that the US Dept of Education could levy fines.</p>

2

<p>I need to read the government’s findings/report, but on first impression I’m wondering if the administration really did anything wrong, law or no law. Just because it’s a government edict doesn’t mean that it’s practical or makes sense.</p>

3

<p>What a waste of time and effort on the Education Department’s part. That department should be closed to save TP money. </p>

<p>No college campus is completely prepared for heinous acts like this and I am sure VT learned what they needed to learn and I doubt seriously lives could have been saved because, as I recall, no one knew at first it was a rampage. It looked at first like it was an incident. </p>

<p>College campuses will never be completely safe. Neither will cars or nuclear power. Deal with it. It is what it is. There is no need for this retarted fine.</p>

4

<p>^^ That was sort of my thought - if this scenario were to happen again would the administration say “we better report it right away or else the Dept of Ed might fine us $55K” or would they most likely say “we better report it right away to try to prevent more people from being killed if possible”. I think the fine is insignificant vs the lives that might possibly be saved (and we don’t know that any would have been in this case).</p>

<p>Rather than a fine it seems that mandatory training on what to do in situations like this would be more effective. These situations are also a learning experience since there’s a lot of unpredictability to them.</p>