Could the Slaying at Virginia Tech have been Avoided??

Of course it could have....just like Columbine....just like the shootings in Montreal...just like the shootings at the Amish school and so on.....I've said it before and I'll say it again...Ppl need to step up and pay attention and ACT on what they see....

I'm not positive it could have been avoided but it sure is sad that the signs were there and not acted upon. People do need to step up when they see or hear something disturbing going on. By not acting upon the obvious signs he was giving out they allowed all these people to die. It is a sad world we are living in these days. It time for people to get involved and hold people accountable. It is also time for prayer.

Yes I do. I am very surprised that nothing was done expecially when he writes about killing people. Then there is the fact that he killed two people and it wasn't until two hours later that he killed like 30 more. Why wasn't the school evacuated, why weren't classes canceled right away and send people to their dorm rooms and have the police come and investigate. I'm shocked no one knew when it happened until about the time that the second shoot out happened. With what was known about the guy he should have been counselled by a professional and evaluated to see if he should be under physicatric care. It's sad that something could have been done to pervent this.

Yeah there could be possibilities that this could had been avoided but I guess there are some factors that really can't control and like what the psychologist said this kind of illness cannot detect when they are hitting the edge of desperation and sudden burst. I guess most of the problem here lies with the murderer. It just so happen that most of the students are not warned with the killings that make the situation more worst.

I think you can't TOTALLY avoid anything in life. I believe that things happen for a reason and the shooting at Virginia Tech may have been caused by a troubled student but there were other factors that affected the whole situation. He was troubled, probably because he was abused, he was brainwashed...we really don't know. I think this is the best time that families become more tightly knit now. I think values and happiness and confidence in life start within the smallest unit of society --- the family.

They definitely could have been avoided. By the things being said about him, the way he acted, the things he did, the plays about killing, the antisocial behavior, the fact that he had already needed psychiatric care, you can't tell me they didn't know this guy was a serious threat and needed to have something done. There were red flags blazing all over with this kid, and they did nothing about it. I've seen bits and pieces of the videos he left and his pictures..and OMGGGG he was scary. Just the way he spoke, his voice, his attitude, I find it hard to believe they couldn't tell he was demented. He scared the crap outta me just looking at him!

Yes...I totally agree. I have seen such segments on television and it seems this young man was very dark and disturbed. Even his roomates wanted him to get some sort of help or counselling and yet nothing was done to help this young man. It is a shame that in our society it takes a horrible act of violence and deaths before anyone pays attention.

Oh I definately think it could have been avoided. I mean if you are that detached from society that you can't even have a conversation with your roomates, you get kicked out class for scaring people. I mean come on, isn't college supposed to be a great learning and social experience?? I think with all the signs that he showed, he should have been forced to go to counseling or he parents should have been called. Something could have been done instead of everyone blowing it off, 'waiting for him to do something'. Well congrats you all were right. He did do something and I bet that a lot of people there have ideas of how it could have been prevented. Maybe before you are enrolled into college you should have to have a psychiatric exam and if you display the kind of behavior that this guy did that you either go to couseling or you're gone.

I think so, if they had only paid attention. I do feel there is so much you can do if they don't accept your help.

You know, I was thinking about this very issue last night. There are people who are literally "mad". although there are of course proper names for these conditions. Some of these people are clever at covering it up for years, & it is not discovered until too late. However, many of these "mad" people have shown signs for years. This man who killed 33 people at the University, showed a number of signs for years, that he was going "mad". Who is in a position to do something about this? The University counsellor, or the administrator? Maybe he could have been required to attend an indepth psychological" assessment. I just don't know. As primary teacher, on a few occassions we weould see a child who show disturbing signs. I could report it to my Principal, their parents, or even child abuse. Even if it went as far as getting the child medically assessed, Doctors & specialists almost never give a firm diagnosis if they child is under 15 years. So nothing happens.

I think school security should be significantly increased in all colleges and High Schools. My school has poor security and a lazy staff and I could very easily sneak a shotgun and some pistols in my backpack and just shoot up the place.

I do not believe there is any real way of knowing if this could of been prevented or not, And there is no way to undo this, it is just so horrible. And it also goes to show that people need to treat others kindly and ask how others are doing, because maybe sometimes someone is hurting so badly that they just don't know what to do, and then they snap or something and do something really horrible. Also as for the writing he did, there are many authors that have wrote horror books without going on to kill people. So that really is not a good way to know either, I think that the best that can be done now is to pray for the families and to pray for mercy on all of our schools that something like this does not happen again ever, this is just a horrible thing that has happened, it would be great if it could of been prevented but really there is no way of knowing if that would of been possible even.

Yes it could have been avoided , if people were more sensitive to other people's feeling. Somehow if there was a more friendly and helping environment it could have been avoided. I dont know with the Virginia tech environment if they were able to provide or they were too insensitive to one disturbed person. As far as I can remeber had fun when I was in college, there were few isolated people but we tried to reach out to them and have learned to open up their worlds to us. There are several reasons why people act this way. They may have adjustment problems and this can be caused by their expereinces in life. If these people were not able to cope with the different lofe crisis an dit should have been provided by the immediate family, if the family cannot provide this then social suppot system is also a major connection that can help, but if all resources are not provided then, this is one result, a very deadly result. What happened open our eyes to the many truths of the society can offer to a person.

Even if he were reported to campus security, there would be little they could do about him. Even the police could do very little when they were called after he was stalking a fellow female student. He was remanded to mandatory counseling for a few days, but that was all they could do. There is no doubt that he was in desperate need of help, but since he was an adult, no one could force him to seek help if he didn't want it. I do think however, that after the initial shooting, the campus should have gone into lockdown and all classes should have been cancelled. Maybe a lot of people would still be alive then.

Yes I agree with you this Man certainly needed help and it makes me angry how People today walk around with their eyes shut, it doesn't matter who it is they do not see it anymore today when People need help they are just interested in themselves

While it's easy and quick to see the obvious answer of yes, after really contemplating it I have to say that this person, no matter how much help he had, etc. would and could have eventually done what he did even if he had been "helped". I do believe the damages could have been a lot worse had they stopped this man after the first shooting of 2 people. The idea that he had 2 hours, enough time to make the tapes, take pictures, etc. and express mail them to NBC is absolutely unbelieveable! So I DO definitely think his damage could and should have been contained but I'm not so sure it could have been completely avoided. Where there's a will there's a way usually and this man was intent upon this and thought long and hard about how to go about it.

yup I think if they had listened to this teacher and possibly other had said something too ! From now on I beleive that all students and teachers should take a good look at all who dont seem to fit in and talk to them get pro help .This was a very a very big Red flag! If people would get their minds off who is going to lay who and look around and try harder to make friends with every one this might not have happened at all

Yes I think so. He sounded like a really depressed and troubled person in his videos, he spoke of bullies and humiliation, so in my opinion he must be bullied by some people since he way young. There are thousands of students in the campus, no one can really pick them one by one and tell "buddy you need psychiatric help", they can offer help but it still up to the person if he will accept the help. The second shooting could have been stopped when somebedy acted on the first shooting at the dorm, the announcement came out too late. What happened is so sad and hard to accept, we can't do anything about it now but wish everyone peace.

I think there were definitely signs that something was wrong with him. But the way our laws are there is nothing anyone could do. You can only hospitalize someone against their will for a few days which they did to him but it didn't help. Until he actually does something or threatens to do something, you are not allowed to do anything other than talk to him. And once someone loses their desire to live talking to him does not help.