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Campus killers’ warnings This case study will explore efforts to identify those that may be troubled and
ignored prone to violence, as well as ways to increase student safety while maintaining
the essential open quality of higher education. Students will also consider the
By Thomas Frank impact of scho ol violence on th eir campus communities, p eer relationships,
.....................................................................................6 families and personal habits.
© Copyright 2008 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co., Inc. All rights reserved.
AS SEEN IN USA TODAY’S NEWS SECTION FEBRUARY 15, 2008, 3A
"School is the only place I'm not allowed to carry my Kentucky's eight public universities bar guns on campus,
weapon," says Washington State University senior Kristin including parking lots.
Guttormsen, 35, one of the group's student leaders. He car-
ries a .40-caliber Taurus Millenium Pro handgun. The Kentucky bill's sponsor, Democratic Rep. Robert
Damron, says college campuses should be treated the same
"I felt defenseless, and it started to bug me, especially with as every other place in Kentucky, where gun owners can
all the school shootings," he says. "We're not talking about keep firearms in their cars, regardless of whether they are
convincing people to get licenses, we're talking about peo- on public or private property.
ple who already have their licenses. And for the most part,
they are older students." Only Utah allows permit holders to carry guns on the cam-
puses of its nine public universities. Thirty-eight states and
South Dakota is the latest state to join the debate. The state the District of Columbia prohibit guns in schools; 16 of
House approved a bill last week that overturns the policy of those specifically prohibit guns in colleges and universities.
the state's six public universities prohibiting guns on cam-
pus. A state Senate committee voted down the bill on The push to allow guns on campus rankles Garrett Evans,
Monday, but efforts continue to push the bill to the full who was shot in both legs during the Virginia Tech ram-
body for vote. Other bills are pending in Alabama, Arizona, page, and Omar Samaha, whose younger sister, Reema, was
Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, South Carolina, killed.
Tennessee, Virginia and Washington.
"Having guns in the classroom only makes things worse,"
"This is the piece of legislation of the year" among state says Evans, 31. He says the Virginia Tech gunman, Seung Hui
lawmakers nationwide, says Kentucky Democratic Rep. Cho, walked into his German class and began shooting so
Kathy Stein, who opposes it. quickly that no one would have had time to shoot back.
In her state, there is a battle over a bill that would allow a Samaha says guns on campus are a risk in an environment
gun on campus if it is locked in a car. Stein says public uni- where young people drink and fight and are not always able
versities should be allowed to set their own policies. to control their emotions. "It's kind of a crazy notion to
think about," he says. "It takes us back to the Wild, Wild
West."
Desiree Smith was sitting near the back of a lecture hall Peters said the school put out a campuswide alert at
in Cole Hall around 3 p.m. when the shooter walked 3:20 p.m. that included a message on the school's web-
through a door at the side of the stage and started site, e-mails, voice mails, public address systems and
shooting. calls to media outlets. The warning on the website was
posted at 3:20 p.m.
"I kept thinking, 'Oh God, he's going to shoot me. Oh
God, I'm dead,'" the senior journalism major said. Elaguizy said she didn't receive a warning on her cell-
phone. The first e-mail she got warning of a possible
"People were crawling on each other, trampling each gunman came at 3:41 p.m.
other," she said. "As I got near the door, I got up and I
started running." On campus Thursday night, students were streaming
out of a dormitory heading for home.
Grady said the gunman had a shotgun and two pistols
and was not a student at the school of 25,000 students. Robin Johnson, 18, a freshman from Chicago, was in her
University President John Peters said the gunman was a English class when classmates received text and phone
former graduate student in sociology at NIU, but was messages about the shooting. She said her teacher
not currently enrolled at the campus about 65 miles locked the door, shoved a desk against the door and put
west of Chicago. a trash can on top of the desk.
Peters said the four women and one man the gunman "We didn't know how many of them there were. We
killed were all students. Four others were in critical didn't know if we were safe," she said.
condition late Thursday.
Eric Johnson, 23, a senior from Addison, Ill., said he was
The shooting recalled the deaths of 32 people at standing 20 feet from the entrance to Cole Hall when
Virginia Tech last year at the hands of a student gun- "the doors flung open and a ton of people ran out. They
man, an act that prompted schools across the country were yelling, 'He's got a gun!'" Johnson heard two shots
to re-examine campus security. as he ran back to his dorm room.
Contributing: William M. Welch in Los Angeles; Alan Gomez in McLean, Va.
"We didn't want to ignore what had happened, but we At University of Colorado, Boulder, administrators updat-
didn't want it to define their college experience," ed the policy on campus violence, says Brad Wiesley,
Director of Orientation Rick Sparks says.
commander of the university's police department. One
change says that deans, professors and staff can refer a
The impact of the massacre -- the nation's deadliest
school shooting ever -- extends far beyond Virginia Tech, person for counseling, something previously left to the
rippling through colleges and universities nationwide. police, Wiesley adds.
Although the university cannot compel a student to seek al the day after the shooting: "We are the Hokies. We
counseling, administrators hope the policy will flag will prevail."
potentially troubled students, he says.
"There came a point where it was time to move on, to
At Virginia Tech, administrators announced several new put some of the signs away," says Blacksburg Mayor Ron
security policies and sent a letter to parents of new stu- Rordam, whose town will swell from 16,500 residents to
dents to reassure them about safety. 41,500 residents as students arrive this weekend.
u Dorms, previously locked just at night, will be locked "The town is affected more deeply than people realize. If
24 hours a day, accessible only to student residents who you live in Blacksburg, you're a Hokie," Rordam says. "In
gain access with an electronic "Hokie Pass." everyday conversation, we still discuss it."
u Students can register for the new emergency notifica- On Sunday, the community will confront the massacre
tion system. during a dedication at the Drillfield, the quadrangle and
heart of the university. President Charles Steger will rec-
u Older door locks will be replaced with exit bars that ognize the victims and unveil an arc of 32 stones, each
cannot be chained shut, as Cho did during the shootings. weighing 300 pounds and engraved with the name of
one of the dead.
Students say they are grateful for the added security but
don't feel vulnerable. The memorial echoes an impromptu commemoration
created during an outpouring of grief after the shootings.
"I'm not afraid for my safety. It's something that could Students collected 32 limestone rocks, locally known as
have happened anywhere," says Meron Assefa, 27, of Hokie Stones, and placed them in an arc. Within hours,
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, who will begin graduate studies the stones were covered with Hokie ornaments, bou-
in economics. She says the security measures are more quets and teddy bears. The original stones will be pre-
comforting for family and friends who have never been sented to the victims' families, says Tom Tillar, vice presi-
to Virginia Tech but watched the tragedy play out on TV. dent of alumni affairs.
"Everybody knows about it. They call it the 'shooting "I think it's a healing place," says Matt Gart, the campus
school,'" Assefa says. "Even my 7-year-old cousin told me landscape architect who supervised the memorial's
he didn't think it was a good place to go." design and construction. "I hope people will see it as a
place to celebrate the lives of those we lost."
In the town of Blacksburg, most store owners have
removed the memorial signs that once covered Main
Street's windows. Still remaining are signs displaying
poet and faculty member Nikki Giovanni's defiant avow-
The massacre of 32 at Virginia Tech in April, like some of That may be the case because campuses often lack sys-
the 15 cases, fits a pattern of killings committed by iso- tems to spot violent students, says S. Daniel Carter, vice
lated, vengeful students who turn homicidal with shock- president of Security on Campus, a safety-advocacy
ing brutality. Students have been stabbed 97 times, shot group. "Many campus murders have been preventable,"
11 times, burned, strangled, suffocated and beaten with Carter says.
force that one pathologist compared to falling off a TV
tower. Colleges have paid millions to settle lawsuits alleging bad
security and have tacitly acknowledged security flaws
USA TODAY reviewed information on 110 campus mur- by tightening safety after a murder. Officials often face
ders since 1991 for which detailed information was criticism and occasional legal sanctions.
available from court testimony, depositions, psychologi-
cal records and news reports. In March, Edward Waters College in Jacksonville paid
$2.75 million to the parents of a freshman who was shot
The campus murders examined also have exposed safety to death at his dorm in 2004. College security director
flaws such as inadequate security forces and the ease Timothy Rose said that with more security, student
with which students and workers can hide criminal Jonathan Glenn "would have had a chance."
backgrounds, the analysis shows. Just this week, rela-
tives of those killed at Virginia Tech demanded the
release of student gunman Seung Hui Cho's mental University of North Carolina Wilmington administrator
health records. James Dixon III left his job and pleaded guilty to forgery
after his son was convicted of raping and strangling a
About a third of campus killers analyzed over the 15- student in her university dorm in 2004. Dixon had lied
year period had recently been rejected, many of them on his son's admission application, omitting recent crimi-
men who had killed a former girlfriend and often them- nal charges. "It wasn't like (the killer) just out of the blue
selves. Seven were failing or thwarted graduate students lost his mind," says Thom Goolsby, a lawyer suing UNC
who murdered faculty members. on behalf of victim Jessica Faulkner's parents. "He was a
ticking time bomb."
The murder is one of at least 15 in which colleges have u In January 2002, Peter Odighizuwa shot and killed an
provided flawed security, ignored threats or danger signs administrator, a professor and a fellow student at
or paid insufficient attention to disturbed students, a Appalachian School of Law a day after being asked to
USA TODAY analysis of more than 100 college killings withdraw for academic failure. Odighizuwa had threat-
ened students and staff for months, according to former
since 1991 shows.
financial-aid officer Chris Clifton. Administrators "just
brushed it off," Clifton said.
The massacre of 32 at Virginia Tech in April, like some of
the 15 cases, fits a pattern of killings committed by iso- uIn October 2002, Robert Flores, a failing University of
lated, vengeful students who turn homicidal with shock- Arizona nursing student, fatally shot three of his instruc-
ing brutality. tors, including one who had recently sent administrators
a "heads up" e-mail warning that Flores "has significant
The pattern revealed by campus killings points to broad- behavioral problems," according to public records. An
er security flaws at colleges that can contribute to the instructor who was not killed had reported Flores'
2,500 annual rapes and 3,000 annual aggravated assaults threats against the school to police, but police never
at colleges, campus safety experts say. contacted Flores. A dean in charge of discipline never got
the report.
uIn March 2004, Shuvender Sem, who has a history of Trouble predicting violence
mental illness, stabbed to death a fellow student at
Maharishi University of Management in Iowa just hours Wendell Williamson, a University of North Carolina law
after attacking another student in a classroom. Joel student, had been hearing voices for two years until a
Wysong, the university's dean of men, had taken Sem to university psychiatrist gave him anti-psychotic medicine.
his apartment after the first attack "to keep an eye on Within six weeks, Williamson was "doing remarkably
him," Wysong said in a police statement.
better," psychiatrist Myron Liptzin wrote in a 1994
When Wysong left Sem alone in his kitchen, Sem took a report.
paring knife, went to the dining hall and stabbed Levi
Butler four times with no provocation. Liptzin retired a month later without arranging for
Williamson to see another psychiatrist, according to a
court deposition. "It was his choice" whether to get
Some campus officials, particularly professors, are ill- treatment, Liptzin said in the deposition.
equipped to handle troubled students, experts say.
Williamson stopped taking medication, returned to
"The people who might see those behaviors first have hearing voices and "decided I'd have to get violent," he
the least background in how to deal with it," said later told a psychiatrist. In January 1995, Williamson
University of South Florida criminologist Max Bromley. strode through downtown Chapel Hill near the UNC
campus and killed two people at random with a rifle.
The number of potentially troubled students is growing
as colleges enroll more people with mental disorders, Colleges say they cannot predict when a troubled stu-
said Russ Federman, head of University of Virginia psy- dent will turn violent. In a one-month span in 2004, two
chological services. Those students can function in aca- University of North Carolina Wilmington students were
demia using psychotropic drugs that are increasingly murdered by other students who hid their criminal
effective. backgrounds on admissions applications. A report by the
University of North Carolina found a pattern of appli-
Seriously disturbed students often "discontinue their cants with criminal backgrounds lying on applications
medication, and that's the point at which they unravel in and suggested better scrutiny of applications.
violent ways," Federman said.
And when a man called the University of Wisconsin- Colleges are taking a "multilayered approach," says Chris
Madison and said he was on campus with a gun, admin- Blake of the International Association of Campus Law
istrators sent e-mails and put the word out on the Enforcement Administrators. That means anything from
Facebook website. low-tech door knocking to plasma screens flashing
warnings.
In each of the cases in the past week, college administra-
tors say their quick actions stemmed from lessons No one was hurt last week at St. John's, which issued a
learned after April's shooting rampage at Virginia Tech, "stay in place" order that lasted more than three hours.
where 32 people were killed by a suicidal gunman. "We erred on the side of safety," university spokesman
While the number of violent campus incidents remains Dominic Scianna says. Before the incident, he says, 2,100
steady, there are more alerts since the Blacksburg people had registered for emergency text messages.
tragedy, says Robin Hattersley-Gray, executive editor of Now, there are 9,000.
Campus Safety Magazine.
When an armed robber hid out on campus last Friday
"Before Virginia Tech, we never had a reason to be able and was soon captured, UW-Madison officials e-mailed
to deliver a message in any big hurry," says Dale Burke, two updates.
UW-Madison's assistant chief of university police. The
school has since cut delivery time for mass e-mail from Says Bob Eoff of the University of Memphis: "Virginia
several hours to 30 minutes. Tech changed everybody's thinking."
The scene is an eerie reminder of the tragedy that struck "I think the thing we have to get past is the idea among
this 10,000-student Catholic university early Sunday some people, some sportswriters, some of our alums,
morning when five members of the men's basketball that the program is star-crossed," said university
team were shot. One of the players, Sam Ashaolu, President Charles Dougherty. "We have to undo the nag-
remained in critical condition Tuesday with bullet frag- ging perception that there is something wrong here that
ments in his head at nearby Mercy Hospital. can't be fixed."
What led to the shootings is still unclear, but several Amodio was hired in 2004 to change that perception. He
players told the Associated Press the shooter was a non- brought in coach Ron Everhart last March to lead the
student unhappy that the woman he accompanied to the way. Everhart had turned around struggling programs at
dance at the Student Union had talked with a player. The McNeese State and Northeastern and completely
shooter and at least one other man followed the players, remade the Dukes roster.
opening fire as the players made the 100-yard trip down
the A-Walk to their dormitories. Eight scholarship players from 2004-05 left the program,
five by transfer. In came 10 new faces, including transfers
As police charged two men with the shootings Tuesday, Kojo Mensah and Shawn James who must sit out this
the Duquesne university community attempted to move season; junior college players Ashaolu and Stuard
forward. Baldonado, and five freshmen. Mensah, James and
Baldonado were among those injured Sunday, along with
"I would never have expected something like this to hap- Aaron Jackson, one of only two players returning from
pen here in a million years," said Carmen Bruce, a last year.
Pittsburgh native and member of the women's basket-
ball team. "The teams here are very close and if some- "From Day One we knew our biggest challenge as a bas-
thing happens to one of us, it happens to us all. We're ketball team this year, as a basketball program, was going
just trying to stay positive and rally around each other." to be the team-building process," Everhart said.
One of the most frequent questions athletics director "Pretty much everything we did revolved around sacri-
Greg Amodio has heard since Sunday is how the shoot- fice, selflessness, the things that create togetherness and
ings will affect the team. a sense of team. And these guys were doing that every
step of the way."
"In all honesty, we haven't really thought about it much
at this point," he said. "Right now we're on a day-to-day The basketball team attended Duquesne's football game
basis, and our focus is on our student-athletes who are against St. Francis on Saturday and were together at the
still hospitalized and their families. dance sponsored by the Black Student Union that night.
Although Jackson was wounded in the hand, he helped 'Historically, a safe place'
get Baldonado into his car and drive him to the hospital.
Duquesne has prided itself on the safety of its campus.
"When this senseless act of violence happened, our play- Even after the shootings students said they felt safe and
ers put their lives in danger to help their teammates," that this incident was not representative of their school
Everhart said. "When guys are willing to do that you or community.
have something special."
"When you send your kids to school you don't expect
NCAA President Myles Brand told Dougherty his organi- them to be in the middle of a shootout and you would
zation was ready to help on any front as the school dealt never expect that to happen at Duquesne," said Norm
with the tragedy. Duquesne has set up counseling for all Nixon, the school's most celebrated basketball player
its student-athletes and Dougherty has met daily with (1973-77) who went on to play in the NBA. "You have to
the basketball team. Amodio said that the players, while take steps to make sure it never happens again."
disturbed about and concerned for their teammates,
have been steadfast. Dougherty said the university is setting up a committee
to review security: "A college campus is an open place
"Kieron Achara (a returning junior forward) told us last almost by definition, so what measures of enhanced
night he could see no reason why this wouldn't make us security are appropriate will require some reflection and
even stronger as a team," Amodio said. "How they're discussion."
looking at this is how this will draw them closer together
and ultimately make them better in the future." "Everything is on the table at this point except that I
know that we can't just put a bubble over ourselves. We
Practice begins in four weeks. don't want to make it discouraging or impossible for visi-
tors to come on campus. The dialogue now has to be do
"At camps and clinics nobody really talks about how to we continue in that direction and do it with some
deal with something like this," Everhart said. "You're just enhancement of our security."
so concerned about the players who are injured and
you're so concerned about their well-being and their Amodio said he has received calls from colleagues
families. around the country offering support and acknowledging
"But the unity on this team is so strong. They've really the shootings could happen anywhere.
stuck together beyond what I thought would be possi-
ble. This team is going to be OK." "Historically this has been a very, very safe place, and
that's what we've tried to stress," he said. "This truly
was an isolated incident perpetrated by individuals who
were not even students here. This was not indicative of
who we are and the environment we have."
2. Some estimate that only about 25 percent of campus crimes are reported to the authorities. What types of cam-
pus violence are most often un-reported? What individual, institutional, and socio-cultural factors are most
responsible for under-reporting incidents of campus violence? What strategies can be implemented to encour-
age reports of campus violence?
3. To what degree do you think current privacy laws and regulations make it too difficult to share vital information
with campus officials when there is a potential threat to students? What exceptions or changes to current law
might be justified in an effort to reduce campus violence?
4. Experts have cited sports culture and the use of drugs or alcohol as factors contributing to school violence. How
do these shape the culture on your own campus? What role do you think they might play in promoting violent
behavior?
5. How have the most recent incidents of campus violence, including Blacksburg, affected your relationships with
fellow students and peers, your family and any personal habits?
6. Some have expressed concern that our schools, as gun-free zones, are defenseless and especially vulnerable to
those who intend to do harm. States such as Arizona are debating changes to the law that would allow legally-
owned guns on campuses as a means of protection. Others worry that allowing people to be armed on campus
would create additional opportunities for violence. Do the recent shootings provide sufficient justification to
allow guns to be carried on campus? Why or why not?
Additional Resources:
v American College Health Association
www.acha.org/info_resources/guidelines.cfm
1. Discuss the role that the Internet plays in giving alienated youths opportunity, motivation and a sense of valida-
tion for violent behavior. Given the role that the Internet can also play in helping alert and protect students in an
emergency, would you say the Internet is ultimately more likely to increase or decrease safety on today’s campus-
es? Develop an “Online Campus Security Plan” that gives specific ways in which the Internet or other newer tech-
nologies could be used in an emergency on your campus.
2. Proposed state government initiatives include a study to see whether state background checks for gun registra-
tion should include mental health information, determine ways to identify mentally ill students and whether cam-
pus security officers should carry guns. Analyze these initiatives for their feasibility and potential effectiveness in
reducing violence on campus. Plan a panel discussion using the Voices toolkit (voices.usatoday.com) and invite
local and state government officials, college administration, faculty and students to discuss these and other initia-
tives to reduce the threat of campus violence.
3. Using the link in the additional resources section of this case study, learn about the different types of violence
illustrated in the American College Health Association Campus Violence White Paper. Which of these is most
prevalent on your campus? Using the crime statistics listed in this white paper as guidelines to help avoid crime,
create a public service message to raise awareness of potential opportunities for crime, as well as illustrate ways
to increase student safety. In the case of sexual assault, be sure your message doesn’t focus primarily on the indi-
vidual victim’s responsibility to avoid sexual assault without balancing this risk management information with pre-
vention education that stresses the perpetrator’s responsibility.
4. Picture a college campus with alcohol-free and smoke-free dormitories, zero-tolerance policies for offenders, an
atmosphere that encourages witnesses to report crimes, and a system that no longer makes it necessary for a vic-
tim to participate in a campus judicial proceeding. What impact would this culture change have on safety, the inci-
dence of crime, student health and academic progress? If positive results could be shown in all of these areas,
would students be more likely to enroll in an institution that imposed these regulations? Why or why not? Using
the Voices toolkit at voices.usatoday.com, debate ways to reduce violence by making changes to the campus envi-
ronment, in general, and on your campus, in particular. Which of your solutions may alienate students who are
accustomed to the freedom of an open campus? How might you convince students that any proposed restrictions
or loss of privacy and freedom were worth it?
Voices Extension:
The questions and activities below utilize USA TODAY's Voices initiative to help you and your fellow students learn
about, debate and inspire action on issues of importance in our country and world.
The Voices website (voices.usatoday.com) provides information and tools you can use to get discussions, forums or
debates going on any number of important topics.
1. Using the Share Your Story link on the Voices website at voices.usatoday.com, post the steps that you, other stu-
dents on your campus, and/or college officials have taken to a) provide a culture that facilitates treatment for stu-
dents suffering from stress or depression, b) create a system that allows both students and faculty to communicate
safety concerns to the appropriate authorities, knowing that they will be taken seriously and c) address the fear
students may feel in the wake of incidents of campus violence.
2. Explore the arguments for and against gun control on the Voices website at voices.usatoday.com. How do these
arguments inform the debate over the best ways to control college violence in the future?
2. How do you feel about seeking services at your school’s counseling center to address your personal concerns dur-
ing distressful times?
3. What are your family’s perceptions regarding seeking professional counseling for personal concerns, and how do
their views affect your personal values related to service utilization?
4. Was there a particular time when you could have benefitted from seeking help? Did you seek counseling services
at that time? If so, what was that experience like? If not, what prevented you from seeking help?
5. If and when you seek counseling, what are the key elements that you would expect the practitioner to possess?
6. How should one’s racial and familial culture be addressed in counseling sessions?
7. How equitable are the services of your university’s counseling center in terms of servicing the racially and cultur-
ally different client?
8. If you were to provide recommendations to improve the current services of your campus’ counseling center, what
would you suggest?