Yesterday
Firt, we had a bomb threat & horrific shooting at VA Tech.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/17/vtech.shooting/index.html

Later that day, there was a bomb threat at UVM through a department’s email account.
The police and the FBI were called, but it wasn’t publicized (probably to avoid mass panic).

Today
A “nonspecific” bomb threat in Texas & the place is immediately evacuated.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/17/vtech.shooting/index.html

UVM obviously took the threats seriously as the FBI was called. Why didn’t the administration react? If bombs had gone off in several prominent on-campus locations (as the note claimed they would), they certainly would have been found negligent. It’s the same “that kind of thing doesn’t happen in Vermont” attitude that made Michelle Gardner Quinn’s brutal slaughter so shocking. I know we can’t live in fear all the time and I’m sure UVM has an emergency management plan, but what will it take for the plan to be implemented? Will we wait for a real tragedy to strike before taking a too-little, too-late approach?

I’m not sure why the Virignia Tech massacre grabbed hold of me to the extent that it did yesterday—it’s not as though any blogger on my side of the country could ever hope to “break” new information.

What got to me were these factors: The astonishing refusal to warn students after the initial bursts of gunfire, with an unidentified killer still on the loose...the ability of the gunman to make his way across campus unimpeded and unseen by surveillance cameras, while wearing an “ungodly” amount of ammo...the odd reports of a black pick-up truck with farm plates being involved...the initial reports of an arrest at the dorm...and the official refusal to rule out a second shooter.

As you no doubt know by now, the killer has been identified as a 23 year old Korean-born student named Cho Seung-Hui, a resident alien who has been in this country since 1992. Originally, a Chicago Sun-Times reporter offered very specific information, which now appears to be wrong, that the killer was a 25 year old recently arrived from China on a student visa. That report even offered the flight number, the arrival date, the city of exit and the city of entrance.

From Cannonfire:
http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2007/04/latest-on-virginia-tech-massacre.html

Now here are some of the facts as we know them. At about 7:15 this morning, a 911 call came to the university police department concerning an event in West Ambler Johnston Hall. There were multiple shooting victims. While in the process of investigating, about two hours later, the university received reports of a shooting in Norris Hall. The police immediately responded.

The shooter in Norris Hall is deceased. There are multiple fatalities. The number of fatalities has not been confirmed. Victims have been transported to various hospitals in the immediate area in the region to receive emergency treatment. And we will proceed to contact the next of kin as the victims’ identities are available. All classes are canceled and the university is closed for the remainder of the day.

The university will open tomorrow at 8:00 a.m., but classes will be canceled on Tuesday. The police are currently staging the release of people from campus buildings. Families wishing to reunite with their students are suggested to meet at the Inn at Virginia Tech, the building that we’re in today. Were making plans for a convocation tomorrow at noon in Cassell Coliseum for the university to come together to begin the healing process from this terrible tragedy.

That ends my prepared comments.

---from the statement by Virginia Tech President Charles Steger

Also quite interesting:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3048108

Some news accounts have suggested that Cho had a history of antidepressant use, but senior federal officials tell ABC News that they can find no record of such medication in the government’s files. This does not completely rule out prescription drug use, including samples from a physician, drugs obtained through illegal Internet sources, or a gap in the federal database, but the sources say theirs is a reasonably complete search.

It’s amazing when you get a peek at their cards, huh? There’s a federal database on who uses antidepressants? Isn’t that a curious little factoid?