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Personal accounts of Virginia Tech tragedy |
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Thursday, 19 April 2007 |
STAFF REPORTS
Appalachian State University students voiced their concerns and experiences surrounding the Virginia Tech University shootings Monday.
One
Appalachian State University faculty member had a direct connection
with one of the victims, as she worked for two years with the RA who
was killed in West Ambler Johnston Hall.
Julie T. Lassalle, Appalachian’s coordinator for sorority life and living, was a graduate student at Virginia Tech University last year and was on its campus during the shooting.
Lassalle
arrived on Virginia Tech’s campus Sunday evening, where she met and
talked with Ryan Clark, one of the first two people who were shot and
killed in West Ambler Johnston.
Lassalle
said she was staying with a colleague Monday in graduate housing and
was about to leave when the colleague called and told her a gunman was
loose on campus.
“I felt fairly safe,” Lassalle said.
Lassalle
said when she found out about the shootings in Norris Hall, she was in
state of “disbelief,” and she remained on lockdown in the room until
4:30 p.m.
When
Lassalle found out Clark was one of the victims, she said her mind
flashed back to the time she had spent with him Sunday evening.
“[He
was a] champion in social justice,” she said. “Knowing Ryan, he was
trying to do everything he could to protect his resident.”
Lassallle said students needed to understand the Virginia Tech administration made the best decision they could at the time.
“They are dealing with things I hope we never have to see anywhere again,” she said.
Stephen E. Daniel, a senior advertising major, has applied and been accepted to Virginia Tech’s communication graduate program. He begins classes in the fall.
“When
I first found out [about the tragedy] I was in my marketing class,”
Daniel said. “I got a mass amount of text messages to later find out
that 32 students had been shot and killed - I was just flabbergasted. I
immediately started calling some of my friends at Virginia Tech to make
sure they were OK.”
Daniel said the incident has not hindered his excitement about attending Virginia Tech.
“You
can’t be scared of these things. One, it could happen anywhere; two,
you have to pursue things even in these traumatic times," he said. "I
have such high regards for Virginia Tech and its community. I don’t
think there is any way [the massacre] could sway me to not pursue this
opportunity.”
Daniel has friends in the Virginia Tech communication department graduate program.
“They were three buildings down [from the shooting], in lock down. They said they had to keep away from all windows,” he said.
Of
the other Virginia Tech students Daniel knew who were not on-campus
during the tragedy, he said, “they heard the news and stayed put … and
gathered in their apartments for reflection.”
Sophomore elementary education major Taylor Cairns’ boyfriend currently attends Virginia Tech.
“It was really upsetting for me because he called me from his room on lockdown,” she said.
She was on the phone with him at 9:45 a.m. when he told her that he had to go because they were
making people get away from the windows.
“I was basically hysterical watching the news,” she said.
Her
boyfriend, Daniel Whitmire, said he was in lockdown in his classroom
until 12:30 p.m. and has to communicate with Cairns over Facebook
because
Cairns
said she attempted to call university phones when she lost contact with
Whitmire, but she continued to get busy tones – most likely because of
the phone traffic at that point in time.
“We just wanted to get out of there,” Whitmire said. “We were just completely shocked and stunned.”
He
said the majority of people who attend Virginia Tech are not nervous at
all to go back. He doesn’t think it will effect the amount of people
returning next year but believes it will have a negative effect on the
amount of incoming freshman.
“I
think that they are all strong kids and I think they are going to be
able to overcome this … They all love that school and I don’t think
anything can keep them away,” Cairns said.
“The best thing [other campuses can do] from my point of view is
support- not necessarily sympathy but being strong and supportive.
Definitely pray for everybody…they need to know that everyone else is
strong.”
Jeremy A. Bryan, a freshman exercise science major, grew up in Virginia and has many friends who attend Virginia Tech.
“I
was just worried. I have friends -- freshmen to seniors -- who go
there … [they] started sending text messages and Facebook [messages],”
he said.
“The entire day I was on edge,” Bryan said. “I just had to go throughout my day and there was nothing I could do.”
Bryan said his best friend freshman year of high school is a senior in the engineering department at Virginia Tech.
He
said he called her very nervous and called all of his friends that go
to Virginia Tech just trying to make sure they were all fine.
“It was a relief hearing that everyone that I loved and cared about was safe toward the end of the afternoon,” he said.
Bryan
said he also received a call from a friend who was scared to death and
wouldn’t leave her residence hall. He said the SWAT team had to help
her out.
Bryan asked that the university “just pray.”
“I
don’t think donations are going to help or bring a big group of people
coming up there wouldn’t help either,” he said. “Just [continue to
pray], let them know that were there for them if they ever need
anything.”
Bryan said as a community Appalachian, should “learn from what happened there.”
“Learn from the unity we are feeling right now in regards to the hokies,” he said.
Freshman undecided major Jessica L. Ligon has a long-standing family link to Virginia Tech and currently two brothers, a sister-in-law and a cousin at the university.
After
receiving a text message from a friend about the incident, Ligon
immediately called her brothers to find out if they were OK.
Luckily,
neither of Ligon’s relatives had been injured in the event but her
cousin, an engineering student, was in the building at the time of the
shootings.
She
said her cousin was in shock and had told his mother late Monday night
he had seen “a ton of bodies” in the building and was escorted out by
police.
“It’s a school that we love," Ligon said. “It’s hard to believe that something of that magnitude could happen there.”
Her brothers told her the support at the campus is “unbelievable."
“Everyone
is hanging onto each other for support. It has always been a close knit
community but this has only brought them closer together,” Ligon said.
(Click here for full story)
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