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Germanna president says staff will look for lessons from Woodbridge shooting Date published: 12/10/2009
By PAMELA GOULD
Germanna Community College has staff on each hallway ready to direct evacuations in an emergency, phones with intercoms in each classroom, and urges students to register for text-message alerts. Those are among the steps the college implemented in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings in 2007, GCC President David Sam said yesterday. After this week's shooting at the Woodbridge campus of Northern Virginia Community College, Sam said security procedures will be reviewed again to be sure the best options are in place. "We'll debrief with the Northern Virginia folks as soon as we can and see what we can learn from them," he said. Shortly before 2:40 p.m. Tuesday, a 20-year-old Manassas-area man entered a classroom full of students in the main administration building of the Woodbridge campus, pulled a high-powered rifle out of a bag and fired twice at assistant professor Tatyana Kravchuk, according to Prince William County police. Kravchuk was able to escape injury by dropping behind her desk, said police spokeswoman Erika Hernandez. No one was injured, and police arrested Jason Michael Hamilton without incident, according to Hernandez. Hamilton was a student in Kravchuk's class and apparently was upset about his grades, police said. Hamilton was charged with attempted murder and discharging a firearm in a school zone. He is being held without bond and has a preliminary hearing scheduled for Jan. 11. Police said Hamilton bought his weapon, a Marlin 30-06 bolt-action rifle, from a sporting goods store near the campus the day before the shooting. The rifle apparently jammed when he reloaded, preventing him from firing a third round, according to Hernandez. Sam said he knew early on about the Woodbridge incident but didn't need to take any steps at Germanna campuses. "We were blessed that what happened [Tuesday] didn't end with anyone hurt," he said. He said the size of college campuses makes them the equivalent of small cities but that they are statistically safer. He said the greatest challenge for community colleges is the open access, with a constant flow of people traveling on and off campus. "I don't know how you can 100 percent prevent something like that from happening," Sam said. "You would have to be a prison." Yesterday, students at Germanna's Fredericksburg-area campus yesterday expressed little concern about safety. Some were unaware of the shooting in Prince William. Others said they felt their campus had good security measures in place. "The security guards are very much visible," said Jenny Lawrence, a 2009 Courtland High School graduate. She also said she's aware of security cameras that keep an eye on activities. Joanelle Tarara of Stafford said she was thinking about the incident as she came to campus yesterday but wasn't deterred from going to her classes. She is signed up for the text-message alerts but admitted she didn't know what steps she should take if an emergency arose. Sam said an important step for staff and administration is monitoring students who are having problems and intervening early on to try to help them. His overall strategy is: "Plan for the worst and hope that it never happens." --The Associated Press contributed to this report. Pamela Gould: 540/735-1972
CHPs are only allowed for those 21 and older. Given the college environment, it would be unlikely that more than 1 or 2 would have a permit, and be carrying a firearm. But a killer won't know for sure like he does now, that everyone is defenseless. That alone reduces the chance that anything would ever happen. But if it does, once the killer is stopped, law abiding citizens stop shooting and re-holster their firearms. The cops are still minutes away, it's all over, dozens more will not have died this time.
So, if and when this happens again, and you have a ton of students and teachers armed and firing, just how are police supposed to navigate that situation? That's just what you want -- 80 or so students firing weapons, everyone in their own Die Hard mode--and how are those students supposed to tell the good students, who now have their firearms exposed and maybe firing, from the maniac? Fabulous idea.
Allowing 21+ year old adults the right to self-defense in a "gun-free guaranteed-unarmed-victim zone?" If you do that, where will the criminals go to murder their victims? Murdering maniacs need their own security too, you know, it's not fair if the victims can shoot back... No, it's utterly ridiculous that we allow school administrators to require students and faculty to work, live and study in a place they are guaranteed to not be able to defend themselves. When seconds count, security is minutes away.
Schools drop policies banning students from legally carrying concealed weapons on campus, so that students at least have a chance to defend themselves?
prevent it. Simple as that. Short of installing REAL security, like students passing through metal detectors, you just can't. I wish schools would stop saying they're going to "review" security. Please, you know you are unable to stop it. Same thing could happen at Germanna or Mary Wash or any other school TODAY. Years of maiacs shooting up kids and teachers hasn't really had an effect on how schools provide for security. It's really sad.
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