A year on, Virginia Tech remembers massacre
The university community gathered in the centre of the campus where a memorial to the 32 students and teachers who died was covered in flowers, and prepared for a day of ceremonies many hoped will help them move on with their lives.
“The one-year point marks the turning point,” said Larry Hincker, associate vice president for university relations, making it clear the campus aims to move on from the rampage that paralysed the school a year ago.
“We’ve worked to try to have an event that is respectful... to remember the lives that were lost.”
University president Charles Steger led commemorations from the April 16 memorial, an arrangement of granite blocks each with the name of the 27 students and five lecturers killed by English student Seung-Hui Cho.
Classes were cancelled for the day and a series of events planned to help students come together and mark their loss, including a memorial slide show and photo exhibition, culminating with a candle-lit vigil.
Cho, a mentally disturbed 23-year-old, killed two people on the morning of April 16, 2007, in a dormitory. Two hours later, he gunned down 30 more during a nine-minute shooting spree in a classroom building before turning the gun on himself.
Earlier this week, the 2,600-acre Virginia Tech campus looked like many others, with students laughing together or chatting on mobile phones as they walked to and from classes, and sports practice continuing as usual.
But under the surface is a community agonised over the events of last year.
“It is there all the time, but no one really talks about it,” said Joanna Martinez, 18. “It is like the big elephant in the room.”
One student said her English teacher now locked the door of her classroom during every class.
Many were looking forward to yesterday as a chance to come together, but for others, media attention risks reopening wounds.
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