According to CNN, 22 people are dead from a gunman's rampage. My friend/former supervisor works there and I am frantically trying to reach her.

WOW! I just saw this on the news!

Goombah, I hope that your friends are ok. Keep us posted.

i just read it. omg that is so terrible...

This is unbelievable. When this news first showed up on the web this morning they said 1 person dead. Now it sounds like there were two shootings. All these kids want to do is go to school to get a higher education and become productive citizens. Do we all have to leave our houses in a bubble of bullet proof shields now?

I'll keep my fingers crossed that you hear from your friend Goombah. I'm sure the situation there is crazy, and that the phone lines are jammed. Keep us posted. Keep the faith!!!

This is every parent's ultimate nightmare - you send your kid away to college, and something like this happens. What an awful, awful thing. Goombah, please keep us posted.

The count is now up to 32 dead, 21 wounded. My God! Bless their souls.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,266310,00.html

What a pity.

Funny, my old man went to VT.

horrible.
Stupid thugs. People behaving like that with guns

Thanks for everyone's concern. I heard from my friend - she is okay physically, but quite shaken obviously. Thank God. She didn't get home until early afternoon, even though the shooting allegedly started before 8:00 a.m. She sent a quick e-mail letting me know that she was safe, but she also mentioned that she thinks one of her students was among the murdered.

I work at a University and the access in and out of these buildings is very easy. We have a campus police department, but they are not equipped to handle something like this or the Case Western Reserve University shooting of 2003. The only way to improve the safety is to have the ID cards of employees and students be used as swiper access cards for doors. Otherwise, it impossible to police every door of every building.

My thoughts and prayers to the deceased, injured, and those scared out of their minds from this cowardly and senseless act.

Well Goombah, I am really glad to hear that your friend is physically ok right now, I cannot imagine what she must be going through mentally after experiencing this horrible tragedy first hand. And it must be horrific for her knowing that one of her students was murdered.

You would think with all the money that these colleges charge that they could afford an electronic security system that requires the swiping of an ID card in order to gain access.

As I am writing this the news is reporting that the number of those murdered is up to 50!! This fuckhead went from classroom to classroom opening the doors and shooting people. My God.

I really feel for all those who were there and for the parents of those students who were tragically murdered. What a nightmare.

This is an absolutely tragic situation. I'm really at a loss for words.

In any case, I'm glad to hear that your friend is safe, Goombah.

That's how it is here, at WVU. Everyone swipes their card, in the dorms anyway. Or, they're supposed to. Sometimes they're a little lax with it, but usually just after everyone recognizes everyone. But not with classrooms. Anyone from off the street can just walk into a classroom.

I can't believe someone would do this. And, living in a college town, this really affects me.

Hi Goombah, I'm so glad you friend is ok. I will keep her and everone else involved in my prayers. The nightmare they are going through. This kind of shit should not happen.

The school is going to have a press conference at 4:30 ET.

I can't speak for other states, but Ohio tuition has increased exponentially over the past 8 years. Now is not the time to drag politics into this discussion, but many schools simply do not possess the money for anything beyond basic operational costs, let alone a security system. Sure, big schools like Ohio State can survive on revenue generated by their football team. But for every Ohio State, there are 10-15 other colleges/universities in Ohio whose budget is largely dependent upon state subsidy dollars. That money keeps decreasing each year and the cost is absorbed by cutbacks and increased tuition. There are layoffs of employees at many schools to meet the declining financial assistance by the state of Ohio. The operations are beyond "lean," so safety is definitely one of the things sacrificed - sadly.

The President is also suppose to speak about this tragedy at 4:05

The University that my wife attends is extremely accessible. Its ridiculous how easy one can wonder in and out of the buildings. I suspetc many other big instituitions are like this. Something needs to be done.

They just played some audio where you can clearly hear the gunshots. Chilling to hear them fully knowing what the results of those shots were.

The President is talking right now.

It is a very sad day.

It really is. For God's sake, you send your kid off to college to get a good education at a good school, hoping that they will have a better life because of it and some sick bastard like this loser ends all their dreams just like that.

Heard something about the guys girl breaking it off with him, and thats what set him off. Supposedly the girl was killed first. Anyone else heard this?

That kind of makes sense. I thought it was weird that he killed one person, then went all the way across campus and killed who knows how many more. So sad..

They mentioned the gunman was an Asian (however relevant that is)who had been "looking for his girlfriend," so that sounds about right (the breaking up thing). I guarantee you this will provoke a nationwide implementation of metal detectors in colleges now. Bad enough we have to use 'em in grade schools. And to think that Imus' stupidity was news yesterday...kinda' puts things in perspective.

Well, we can talk about fallout later. Right now, I just pray for the families who lost or even had kids at that school. I cannot imagine the pain they're feeling. I, too, am glad your friend's okay, goombah. This is a tragedy.

Don't know if this has been mentioned on the web or tv, but Va Tech was shut down in the fall of 2006 when a gunman or some other nut was on the loose throughout campus. Nobody was hurt, but I wonder if it was the same scumbag from today.

They said something about being shut down because of an escaped prisoner in the area, on tv earlier.

It sickens me that right away the media has to insert race into a horrible situation like this one. One station even had to report that they believe that every shooting that occured in a college in this nation has been carried out by a foreigner! Now whether that is the case or not, right now it doesn't really matter. People have been murdered by some depraved manaic. That's the bottom line.

I just can't help but get the feeling, from listening to some of these reporters, that because of what's taken place with the Imus situation, the media is just dying to try and put a racial spin on everything right now.

Earlier today I heard a report that last week a bomb threat was phoned into the college.

Tonight when I go to class I will instruct my students on how to respond to an armed intruder in my classroom.

DC: if the shooter turns out to be anything else than a caucasian, Christian, American born and bred here, you can bet people like Michael Savage will have a field day.

There are going to be the copycat morons making threats and trying to terrorize other colleges and/or high schools.

If I see Jesse Jackson or Sharpton even commenting about the Va Tech shooting, I am going to puke.

My nephew goes to school in VA, and I just couldn't rest until I heard his voice. I had no idea if his school was anywhere near Virginia Tech, but he told me that he's about 2 hours away. I was just relieved to hear him.

DC, I know exactly what you mean. You and I both have kids that are considering colleges, and it's frightening. You read so much about violence on campuses.

As Beth said, God bless their souls.

Some of the students are saying that after the first shooting at 7:30 this morning that they didn't even go in lock down till after the second round of shooting. That is outrageous.