VIRGINIA
RICHMOND
Virginia Tech revamps emergency plans
Two months after the Virginia Tech shootings, the school is rolling out plans for an expanded emergency notification system that will allow students, faculty and staff to be alerted to emergencies by text messages, e-mails and online instant messages.
Starting July 2, members of the Tech community can sign up for the expanded “VT Alerts” system, which will be ready to go by the time fall classes begin Aug. 20.
Virginia Tech began looking into expanding its emergency alert system well before student gunman Seung-hui Cho killed 32 persons and then himself April 16, university spokesman Larry Hincker said.
Plans to revamp the system actually began last fall, after an escaped prisoner accused of killing a hospital security guard fled to the Tech area and caused the campus to shut down. The school was in the process of selecting a vendor for the new alert system when the April shootings occurred.
“We were already rolling down this path before April 16 came along,” Mr. Hincker said. “This is exactly what we have had planned.”
With the new technology, being provided by 3n (National Notification Network), a California-based provider of mass-notification systems, students and staffers can receive alerts by cell phone text message, online instant messages, phone calls and e-mails.
Students and staffers eventually will be able to add phone numbers, e-mail addresses and instant message screen names for their friends and family to the system.
During the April 16 shootings, the university relied mainly on e-mails, the campus siren and a message on Tech“s Web site to alert students to the danger, Mr. Hincker said. At the height of the crisis, the Web site was receiving 150,000 hits an hour, he said.
Since then, the school has been conducting a sweeping review of campus safety. Dorms now will be locked 24 hours a day, accessible only by swipe cards. School officials are debating whether to add locks to classroom doors.
Drag-racer had prior drunken-driving charge
The drag-racer whose car crashed into a crowd of spectators and killed six persons during a parade in Selmer, Tenn., pleaded guilty seven years ago to driving drunk in Loudoun County, Va.
Toxicology tests done on driver Troy Critchley after the accident were negative for drugs and alcohol.
View Entire Story
By John Solomon
How the government's punishing of the exposure of official wrongdoing can linger for years
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
Weekly agitation from a columnist who many believed to be one of the least likely to become known as a Conservative Republican.
Happiness is attainable. Morning to night. I love to teach, deal with folks that have an issue and really wish to tackle it and write.
This column will cover anything that has anything remotely to do with the game of baseball, from the game itself to mid-summer trades to offseason moves.
Benghazi: The anatomy of a scandal
13 Photos
Vietnam Memorial adds four names
18 Photos
Cinco de Mayo on the Mall
11 Photos
NRA kicks off annual convention
8 Photos
