Blacksburg, Va.
irginia police this week combed through the e-mail and phone records of Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho, looking for evidence that he may have been romantically fixated on his first victim, Emily Hilscher. Cho shot and killed Hilscher, along with a dormitory advisor, two hours before crossing the campus and killing 30 others in two classrooms. Classes at Virginia Tech resumed this week, but some 25 percent of the school’s 26,000 students were not present. Virginia Tech is allowing students to drop classes without penalty or accept their current grades. Meanwhile, administrators at hundreds of colleges, including Virginia Tech, are exploring the technical feasibility of sending mass cell phone text messages to all faculty and students, in the event of a shooting or other emergency. “The standard changes after Virginia Tech,” said Mark Rosenberg, chancellor of Florida’s state university system.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Taking aim at Venezuela’s autocratFeature The Trump administration is ramping up military pressure on Nicolás Maduro. Is he a threat to the U.S.?
-
Comey indictment: Is the justice system broken?Feature U.S. attorney Lindsey Halligan has indicted former FBI Director James Comey on charges of lying and obstructing Congress
-
Government shuts down amid partisan deadlockFeature As Democrats and Republicans clash over health care and spending, the shutdown leaves 750,000 federal workers in limbo
