Va. Tech report calls for alert plan

BLACKSBURG, Va. – Virginia Tech needs to improve building security, enhance its campus-wide alert system, and better monitor troubled students to prevent a tragedy similar to the April 16 massacre of 32 students and faculty, according to a school review of the incident released Wednesday.

The report specifically recommended that classrooms be equipped with electronic banners that would alert students to emergencies, message boards in hallways to provide critical information, and an electronic “people locator system” so students and others could inform people of their whereabouts. Soon after the massacre, the university came under fire for not better alerting students and others to the potential dangers they faced.

The report also said the university should add locks to classroom doors to help prevent another killer from bursting in.

“There’s little doubt that April 16th has changed public expectations of the higher education community,” Virginia Tech President Charles Steger said Wednesday at a press conference. “We’re going to do what’s necessary.”

Steger said that the school would evaluate the recommendations provided by the committees and institute them based on cost and other factors over the coming months.

The three review committees that presented the report were formed by Steger days after Seung Hui Cho killed students and faculty in separate events over two hours, now considered the worst shooting by a lone gunman in U.S. history.

The report was different from another investigation into the shootings ordered by Gov. Timothy Kaine. That report is expected to be released next week.

The school’s report does not assess the actions of police, university officials or others, but rather focuses on how the university could prevent similar tragedies.

The findings, which were submitted to Steger last week, focused much of their attention on three critical areas: how the university’s student counseling system can better track troubled students; how officials can better alert and secure students, faculty and staff during emergencies; and how to improve emergency communications during incidents.