Hundreds of students gathered at Keene State College yesterday to honor the lives of 33 students and faculty members who died during a school shooting spree at Virginia Tech on Monday.
After the service, the students wrote their condolences on a giant poster board, serving as an oversized sympathy card that will be mailed to the Virginia Tech community later this week.
At the University of New Hampshire, the school's flag was lowered to half staff and will remain that way in honor of the victims for one week.
And on the other side of the state, Plymouth State University students planned a candlelight vigil for next week to honor the victims they never met.
The deadliest school shooting in the nation's history unfolded Monday morning when Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old senior at Virginia Tech, killed 32 people at two different locations on campus, before he turned the gun on himself. Police estimate 21 more students and faculty members were wounded.
The massacre may have spared New Hampshire from casualties and occurred 650 miles away, but grief-stricken college administrators and students here reacted quickly yesterday.
Susan Peery, spokeswoman for Keene State College, said counselors spoke with dozens of students yesterday who expressed emotions from shock to horror and fury.
"It's so horrible. It really hits home on a campus because we're all vulnerable in a way," Peery said. "And in an emergency situation like that, we all feel solidarity and sorrow for the people in Virginia because it could've been us."
Campus security
The timing of the tragedy, less than one week after the state held its first school violence summit, was pointed out by many officials yesterday.
About 400 educators and law enforcement agencies attended the summit, sponsored by the attorney general's office in Concord. An additional 100 educators were on a wait list and unable to attend.
Ron Peimer, who directs security at the Pease International Tradeport in Portsmouth, specializes in physical security and was one of the speakers at the summit.
He said the shooting in Blacksburg, Va., showed how important it is for New Hampshire educators and lawmakers to constantly review their emergency reaction plans.
"Educators traditionally think about education," he said. "Security is essentially something new or newer to them and educators are becoming more aware of the importance of it."
Yesterday, he said it was impossible to entirely secure a campus, but not impossible to make a campus safer. At larger schools with campus sprawl like Virginia Tech with its estimated 25,000 students, security is just a piece of the school safety puzzle, according to Peimer.
"You can take some steps to secure each building and make sure only authorized people come in and out of them. The problem here (at Virginia, the shooter) would've been authorized," he said.
Early intervention
Yesterday, Virginia Tech students recalled the shooter, Seung-Hui, as a classmate who wrote violent and graphic plays in creative writing classes. Police later revealed that the shooter also left a suicide note that disparaged females and rich people.
Peimer said the biggest quandary facing all universities is how to identify early signs of violence in college students and get them to enter counseling.
At Keene State, counselors are consistently faced with the issue of early intervention, according to Andy Robinson, director of student affairs.
He said even when the school identifies a student who can benefit from counseling, there's no way to mandate it, unless he or she actually erupts in violence. He said there isn't one type of student who can benefit from counseling. It's unpredictable, which presents the challenge.
"But it's one of the keys in stopping these incidents," he said. "Sometimes you hear some people say, 'He had an anger management problem.' Other times you hear people say, 'He's a nice guy and nonviolent.' But the predictability factor is pretty tough."
Yesterday's reports revealed that Seung-Hui was referred to counseling services by administrators. It was unclear if he ever attended them.
"It's a tough dilemma. There are certainly students we identify who could benefit from counseling, but if they're not ready or open to it, they're not going to benefit from it. So forcing them to go doesn't do any good," Robinson said.
Campuswide repercussions
Robinson, of Keene, said student reactions varied yesterday.
Some were concerned with practical matters, such as what they could do to help.
Others were more emotional and discussed their sorrow for the victims and their families.
Even more, he said, were just angry and confused.
But it wasn't only students affected by the tragedy, Robinson said.
"One thing that people are forgetting is there's an equal number of faculty and staff who are struggling with this as professors and as parents. They're struggling with the vulnerability they have."
At least four of the 33 victims were faculty members. One was a survivor of the Holocaust, and another was a pioneer in cerebral palsy research. Each had a story of his or her own.
John Clark, chief of police for the university police force at Plymouth State University, said it's an ongoing learning process not only for faculty, but for police officers who work the campus beat every day.
"My first reaction was how terrible this has happened again; how terrible for the victims and families," he said. "As a college, we all have crises and incidents, but I can't even begin to imagine one situation magnified by thirty-three."
Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.
