Tech Alums Send Experts to Virginia
Virginia Tech recently suffered the most massive campus murder in US history. The students and faculty are still trying to rationalize what was fundamentally an irrational act, and Georgia Tech alums decided to lend a hand.
Georgia Tech knows well the threat of terrorism due to the arrest of alleged Muslim jihadist Syed Haris Ahmed last year. Schools of all levels are defensless soft targets and the world is watching how Virginia Tech and America responds to the murder of our youth.
Of particular interest to the Georgia Tech alums was the differences in fatality ratios of the various Virginia classrooms based on how they responded to the threat.
Mr. Cho first entered the Hydrology class where he achieved surprise and killed the teacher and 5 students. The other four occupied classrooms on the second floor each responded in different ways with different outcomes.
The French and German language teachers directed their students to “duck and cover” under their desks. The Computer and Engineering teachers directed their students to defend the doors, and the Engineering Professor ordered the students to kick out the windows and escape.
As a result, after the initial assault on Hydrology:
- In the language classes 17 students died and 10 survived.
- In the Engineering and Computer classes 2 died and 19 survived.
Those in the Computer class successfully defended their door and suffered no fatalities. The Engineering class professor, holocaust survivor Liviu Librescu, successfully defended his door, finally falling after being shot 5 times. All but one of his students survived, most by dropping from the second story window.
One of the survivors of the French class described the shooter calmly walking down the rows of desks and shooting each supine or kneeling student twice in the head. The description is eerily similar to the description of the Columbine high school shooting where 10 of 14 students were shot by Harris and Klebold while ducking under their desks in the library.
The GT group, many of which are veterans going back to World War II, believe that student training could increase the student survival rate in future “active shooter” situations.
In solidarity with the Virginia Tech alums we sent a Texas school security training team to Blacksburg to explain options used in some Texas public schools.
The message to Virginia Tech students and faculty from the security team was, “You do not have to die quietly on your knees. You have options. Use them.”
Those of us who went to Blacksburg could only be impressed by the strength of character of the young men and women leaders on this devastated campus. If the leaders we met are indicative of the next generation, America is in good hands.
Following our visit we received several comments including this one from a Virginia Tech mother describing her daughter’s response to our visit:
“She’s glad she went. And the haunted look on her face was gone when she returned.
Just as we Americans have learned that sitting passively for plane hijackers no longer works, we need to also learn
to feel more empowered against this kind of violence.
I don’t remember the name of the Georgia Tech man, but please thank him and your sponsors for sending your team and for the caring and creative thinking that is obvious by sending you here.”
We have called on Virginia Governor’s Tim Kaine and Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue to immediately offer training options to parents and students so that no further American youth need die on their knees.
Full Story