Psychological Effects from the Virginia Tech Shooting - Research Paper Example

?Running Head: Psychological Effects from the Virginia Tech Shooting The Aftermath of the Virginia Tech Shooting (Psychological Effects from the Virginia Tech Shooting) The Virginia Tech Shooting Shock and devastation, that is, after a university community experienced a mass murder that savaged a great number of people last April 16, 2007. It is but history for people of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), as an itchy trigger finger took the lives of 32 individuals on the school campus, school residences and classroom buildings, and claimed to be the deadliest single shooting accident in the U.S. history (Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools, 2010). The school, located in Blacksburg, Va., southwest of Roanoke, perturbed by a certain Seung-Hui Cho (Cho) by opening a fire, was founded in 1872 as a land-grant college which has more than 25,000 students on its 2,600-acre campus. The claimed gunman, Cho, was identified as 23-year old South Korean, a resident alien in the U.S and was in his senior year in English (Broder, Bowley, Stolberg, Sang-hun, Shepard, 2007). Although his family moved to the U.S as early as 1992, he was characterized as a “loner” by the university’s associate vice president, Harry Hincker. On the day of the shooting, Cho was wearing a suit resembled as a Boy Scout with eyeglasses and close cropped hair. Cho’s family were bewildered with the news, knowing that their son was a silent one. According to his family, when Cho was young, he never mingled with other kids. He was known to be well-behaved, all right, but his family honestly opened that his pronounced bashfulness deeply worried them (Sang-Hun, Abruzzesem Kovaleski, Zezima, Buckley, Lee and Rashbaum, 2007). In addition, the relatives of Cho thought he was mute or mentally ill. Meanwhile, back in South Korea, Cho grew up in a shabby place, living in a two-storey apartment with his family. After the incident happened, his family were clueless of why their son would do this thing. However, interviews of students and teachers speculated that his silence will turn into murderous rage given the thorough and meticulous preparation of the massacre he did before his final hours. Nevertheless, despite absence of knowing, inkling of understanding or tinge of apprehension, Cho’s sister gave a statement of apology and expressed their family’s devastation and astonishment. Her sister in her statement uttered that “this is someone [Cho] that I grew up with and loved. Now I feel like I didn’t know this person.” On the other hand, people who witnessed the shooting described it as mass chaos and unimaginable horror scenes (Johnston, Adrews, Abruzzese, Doty & Stout, 2007) as the students in the campus were forced to line up against the wall and shot dead. Some bravely tried to escape by jumping out of windows, squatting on floors to cover from danger and barricading classroom doors to avoid the gunman from entering them. On report, additional 15 individuals were injured in the shooting which lasted for three long dreadful hours. The first attack started early in the morning, logged by a report to a police of a student at 7:15am and followed by the 9:45 attack. Interviews of students stated that the gunman went room to room to look for his ex-girlfriend. Police reports found out that the gunman made used of two weapons (9-millimeter and 22-caliber handgun), one of which was used in killing most of the victims at Norris Hall and at West Ambler Johnston Hall. Dead victims were found in four classrooms and stairways at the same hall while personal belongings were scattered on the second floor. Furthermore, student victims were named. Among which were Ryan Clark, senior, and Emily Hilscher, freshman. Meanwhile, professors killed were likewise identified. Some of whom were Prof. Liviu Librescu, a Romanian Israeli who had lived in the United States for several years, and Dr. G.V. Loknathan, who was originally from India and became an American citizen after arriving in the United States in 1977 ( Johnston et. al., 2007). After killing the students and faculty, he [Cho] then shot himself in the face which barely made him unidentified, according to the officials. As the day was blanketed by bloodsheds of innocent students and teachers, the authorities slowly evacuated students from the campus and cancelled all classes. The families of these students were reunited and stayed at the Inn at Virginia Tech and hotel rooms. The university community, on the other hand, assembled on Tuesday at the Cassell Coliseum to investigate on the tragedy. Criticisms from Communities Although the Virginia Tech shooting is considered as the deadliest single shooting of US history, the death of 16 people in 1966 by a certain Charles Whitman at the University of Texas is considered to be the deadliest campus shooting. On the other hand, the mass shooting in Virginia Tech was not the first incident that had happened in the locality, nonetheless, an interview by CNN reporter, Shaver Deyerle, of a student commented that, the incident reminded him of the Columbine High attack in 1999, where two teenagers killed 12 fellow students and a teacher before killing themselves. The actions of these two killers were the result of the yearlong plot of the same including the plan to blow up the school and kill as many as 500 people (Lamb, 2008). This was recorded as the deadliest school shooting in U.S until the mass killing at Virginia Tech. In contrast, the killing of 32 individuals was not only the issue of the case but also the absence of precautionary steps and necessary protection that should have been aided to students, which affected families and individuals were clamouring for. The defense of the administration that there was a lapse of judgement did not give them an easy job of what clearly aroused as acts negligent authorities. The facts of the incident showed that the second attack came after two hours from the first attack, which gave the campus administration ample time to exercise precautionary action and emergency procedure. However, the university did not evacuate the campus or notify the students of that attack until hours later (Johnston et. al., 2007). Criticisms were focused on whether or not the university officials had responded to the incident adequately to the shooting as there was a two-hour gap between the first and second shootings, but the university did not send a campus wide alert before the second attack cold began. However, a television conference that afternoon and later in the evening by Chief Flinchum explained that officials thought that the shooting was only “domestic,” guessing that it was between individuals who knew each other. As the incident seemed to be isolated, according to Flinchum, to the dormitory only, the campus was not shut down after the shooting. It is only after the gunman had killed himself that the authorities were able to respond to the incident. It was only later that day that police were able to conclude that the two shootings in the campus were related which they could not confirm for that time being until they had analyzed the case. Moreover, the university spokesman, Jenn Lazenby, said that the university was investigating whether the two bomb threats at the campus one last Friday was related to the shootings. On the other hand criticisms were given by the university to the US Department of Education report regarding the school in violation of federal campus security law. It was recited in the preliminary report that the school did not notify students in a “timely manner” as dictated by the Clery Act (CNN Wire Staff, 2010). Also, a state panel last August 29 criticized the Virginia Tech stating that they [Virginia Tech] could have saved lives by notifying the students and faculty members earlier about the killings (Sabar, 2007). Nonetheless, despite questions why Cho was instigated to pursue such act and criticisms of efforts of the university in responding to the killing, the former President Bush, on Monday after the incident, sent his condolences to the bereaved families and the university community. Former president Bush stated that, “schools should be places of sanctuary and safety and learning,” When that sanctuary is violated, the impact is felt in every American classroom and every American community.” On the other hand, the deputy of White House Press secretary stated that they are going to extend convocation as expression of sympathies and support and prayers for the community. Measures and Safety Concerns Posed After the Virginia Tech happened, many where traumatized and scared of what may happen in their community. That is why universities like the University of Illinois, Chicago posed concerns and safety and security policies for their students and campus community. (Czech, 2007). In this light, UIC Chief of Police, John Robinson sent out various safety issues that may be used during emergencies. Real-time surveillance cameras across campuses and “safe school plan” with special training of police officers are some of the few measures that may be undertaken, as a continuing procedure to maintain safety and security of the community, and must be necessarily be up-to-date. Like UIC, they have more that 1,000 Startel alarm stations and 60 live real-time surveillance cameras across their campus (Czech, 2007). Another safety policy is the lock door system wherein some of the buildings, like the UIC, have doors remotely locked from the inside allowing those inside to leave but preventing those from the outside to enter. Furthermore, an important safety policy is open communication with police authorities for efficient emergency notification. For this purpose, the UIC shall include a software that will be able to send messages to all cell phone numbers saved in their (UIC) database. However a few of the people of the UIC commented on the windows of their buildings that cannot be opened. In interviews, they (students) stated their views that they will not be able to make the emergency exit in windows by jumping out of the buildings whenever a similar Virginia Tech shooting will happen again. Nevertheless, with the new policies in progress, the UIC hopes that everyone in the campus would feel safe there. Aside from UIC, many different changes not only in the university itself but also to other universities have spurred by reason of the Virginia Tech shooting. The same emergency messaging systems were introduced in different campus. The right to carry guns by unarmed campus police officers are now being discussed. Likewise, universities are increasing mental health services for spotted troubled students in order to avoid situations that will into a murder rage and what not (Vu, 2007). Psychological Effects from the Virginia Tech Shooting It is hard to erase from the minds of those affected by the shooting the scare and trauma they have dealt from the shooting. Others may resort to hiding and lying as remedy to forget what had happened but surely, it will take years before the campus community of Virginia Tech will be able to go back to their normalcy. For other residents of the campus community it is but a deja vu of what happened in Columbine High. Emily Jacobson of the Columbine High School Graduate shared that, “it takes a while to internalize what had happened. But in time it will get better.” One of the effects of the shooting according to Tom Bearden, News Hour Correspondent, is the difficulty of talking about it because victims want to escape from the responsibility and scare of being hunted of what had happened especially to students who think that sharing it would not make any good as parents would not understand them. But the impeding effect of these kinds of incident is the “widespread trauma,” (PBS NewsHour, 2007). Killings like the Virginia Tech produce ripple effect causing psychological damage. In a report entitled, Retraumatization (REMS, 2010), it emphasized that traumatic events led to experiencing responses of isolation, hypervigilance, substance abuse, disassociation, self-injury, eating disorders, anxiety and other psychological, emotional and behavioural reactions. The best remedy however, in order to avoid these kinds of behaviours, is to engage into partnerships and social organizations to be able to work and mingle with other people and able to share thoughts and feelings. As the concept of trauma and retruamatization explains, traumatic events changes the lives of those affected. The impact of trauma is cumulative, the more traumatic events are experienced, the greater its impact. It is likewise additive, the greater the exposure the greater its correlative impact. And summative as it will carry a person stronger and allow her to control herself and her behaviour (REMS, 2010). References Bearden, T. (25, April 2007). Survivors of Virginia Tech Shootings Face Long Road to Normalcy. PBS NewsHour. Retrieved November 7, 2011, from http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law/jan-june07/survivors_04-25.html Broder, J.M., Bowley, G., Stolberg, G., Sang-Hun, C. and Shepard, A.C. (17 April, 2007). Virginia gunman identified as a student. New York Times U.S. Retrieved November 7, 2011, from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/17/us/17virginia.html?ref=virginiapolytechnicinstituteandstateuniversity CNN Wire Staff. (18, May 2010). Virginia Tech disputes report criticizing response time in 2007 shootings. CNN Justice. Retrieved November 7, 2011, from http://articles.cnn.com/2010-05-18/justice/virginia.tech.report_1_clery-act-campus-shooting-norris-hall?_s=PM:CRIME Czech, R. (23, April 2007). Virginia tech tragedy sparks UIC's safety concerns. Chicago Flame. Retrieved Novermber 7, 2011, from http://www.chicagoflame.com/news/virginia-tech-tragedy-sparks-uic-s-safety-concerns-1.1296829#.TrgGK3Kum1c Fox News. (17, July 2007). Virginia Tech gunman raised concerns with disturbing writings. Retrieved November 7, 2011, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,266582,00.html#ixzz1d2zirtoV Johnston, D., Andrews, E.l., Abruzzese, C.D. and Stout, D. (16 April, 2007). Virginia tech shooting leaves 33 dead. New York Times U.S. Retrieved November 7, 2011, from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/16/us/16cnd-shooting.html?pagewanted=all Lamb, G. (17 April, 2008). Columbine High School. The New York Times. Retrieved November 7, 2011, from http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/c/columbine_high_school/index.html?inline=nyt-org Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) Technical Assistance Center. (2010). Retraumatization: How one college campus responded to emotion reinjury. Lesson Learned: From School Crises and Emergencies. Vol. 5, Issue 3. Retrieved November 7, 2011, from http://rems.ed.gov/docs/LL_Vol5Issue3.pdf Sabar, A. (30, August, 2007). Virginia Tech Criticized for Actions in Shooting. The New York Times U.S. Retrieved November 7, 2011, from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/30/us/30school.html?ref=virginiapolytechnicinstituteandstateuniversity Sang-Hun, C., Abruzzese, S., Kovaleski, S.F., Zezima, K., Buckley C., Suevon L. And Rashbaum, W.K., (22 April, 2007). Before deadly rage, a life consumed by a troubling silence. The New York Times U.S. Retrieved November 7, 2011, from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/us/22vatech.html?ref=virginiapolytechnicinstituteandstateuniversity Vu, P. (6 September 2007). Va. Tech shooting spurs changes at colleges. Stateline. Retrieved November 7, 2011, from http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=237774 Read More