RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia Tech broke federal campus security laws by waiting too long to notify students during a 2007 shooting rampage that killed 33, including the student gunman, according to a federal report released today.
Tech disputed the finding, saying university officials met standards in effect at the time of the April 16, 2007, shootings and that the U.S. Department of Education’s preliminary report is colored by “hindsight bias.”
The school could be fined for the violation unless the department revises its findings when it issues a final report.
The university has previously been criticized for not notifying the campus of the shootings sooner. The state has released its own report identifying apparent missteps.
The Department of Education said Tech violated the Clery Act’s requirement of a timely warning. About an hour and 20 minutes elapsed between the shootings of two students at a dormitory and an e-mail alert to the campus about a possible danger.
The e-mail was sent at 9:26 a.m. The massacre in a classroom building began at 9:40 a.m. when a mentally ill student, Seung-Hui Cho, chained the doors and shot 30 more people to death before committing suicide.
The Department of Education said the warnings “were not prepared or disseminated in a manner to give clear and timely notice of the threat to the health and safety of campus community members.”
But the university said that before the Tech shootings, the department had never defined what “timely” meant in the Clery Act. Tech said the standard in effect at the time allowed university officials to use their best judgment after consulting with law enforcement, which they did.
A national nonprofit organization, Security on Campus, had asked the department to investigate whether Tech violated the Clery Act. The department issued the preliminary report to Tech in January, but the university declined to release the report until it prepared a response.
The Department of Education will take the university’s response into consideration in drafting a final report, Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said.
Hincker said the university could be fined if the final report finds they violated the Clery Act.
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