Moving Forward: grieving, rebuilding, preventing after the VT Tragedy

Apr 26

Handling grief: Prognosis good for recovery

In the wake of the Virginia Tech shooting, UVA announced that it was offering extra group meetings and prepared its counselors for a wave of psychological appointments. Yet the wave hasn't come, and Russ Federman, director of counseling services at UVA's Elson Student Health Center, says that's actually a positive sign.

COVER Killer instinct: What drives a shooting spree?

Was he a paranoid schizophrenic? A psychopath? Did he have a brain tumor? What could have turned a college student into a killing machine? In the nearly two weeks since the horrible Monday morning when 23-year-old Cho Seung-Hui unleashed a hail of bullets on students and faculty at Virginia Tech, mental health professionals have weighed in on what may have driven Cho's rampage.

COVER Literary tragedy: Writing profs read between the lines
On April 16 in Blacksburg, a 23-year-old student who wrote plays and poetry authored a tragedy that has left the world dumbstruck. In taking violent fantasy to reality in one fantastic leap, the author carefully orchestrated his tragedy for maximum effect, mailing video, photos, and rants to NBC News before the climax of the story.
Seung-Hui Cho had no close friends, and counselors and police found no legal or psychological reason to intervene when his writings drew the worried attention of his teachers. So it was left to those Virginia Tech creative writing instructors to wonder if his words were merely provocative forms of expression– something teachers see and usually encourage– or were there signs that his violent fantasies were about to leap off the page?
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COVER Next for Norris: What happens to places where horrors happen?
On Monday, Virginia Tech officials announced that Norris Hall– site of 31 of the 33 deaths in the worst school shooting in American history– will never house another class. Still, the building is the site of offices and laboratories, mostly for the engineering science and mechanics department. But the future use and even existence of Norris Hall remains undetermined, and while no precedent exists for what transpired within its granite walls, many situations have required people to decide what to do with buildings where the unthinkable happened.
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COVER SIDEBAR- Been there: Former Kent State VP lauds response
The April 16 massacre at Virginia Tech was, for most Charlottesvillians, their first experience with a deadly shooting on a college campus. But not for Robert Matson.
Long before coming to Charlottesville to serve as director of leadership development for UVA's Weldon Cooper Center, Matson was the vice president of student affairs at Kent State University, a campus forever marked by May 4, 1970, when Ohio National Guardsmen shot and killed four students during a protest of the American invasion of Cambodia.
While Matson prefers not to say much about what he witnessed that day, he is quick to dismiss any comparison between Kent and Blacksburg.
"Kent State was entirely different," says Matson. "It was a response generated by a war, and [the shooting] was an official government action. This was one deranged person."
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COVER Talking it out: Radio host offers disaster therapy

It's late Thursday afternoon, three days after the Virginia Tech massacre, and Charlottesville's best-known afternoon radio host, WINA's Coy Barefoot, is once again working through the seemingly incomprehensible disaster.
"This thing has really shaken me up," says Barefoot in the moments before he goes on the air. "I had to leave the living room last night and just go cry it out alone in the dark."
His radio show dubbed "Charlottesville... Right Now" usually features a mix of local and state– sometimes national– figures. But what happened in Blacksburg caused Barefoot to cancel all his guests.
"This week," he tells callers, "it's just you and me, folks."
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COVER Too soon: Lawmakers pause on gun policy
The smoke had barely cleared from last week's horror at Virginia Tech before the specter of America's long-simmering gun-control debate rose again, with various blogs declaring the 2nd Amendment dead– or in need of more defense than ever.
After the solemn April 17 convocation at Tech, Governor Tim Kaine, who earned a standing ovation for his speech, remarked that he had nothing but "loathing" for those who would turn the tragedy into a "political hobby horse."
Likewise U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was quoted as cautioning against a rush to action.
"We've barely begun to sort through the facts," says Albemarle Delegate Rob Bell. "I think we need to get through this investigation and period of mourning before looking at policy changes."

COVER- Handling grief: Prognosis good for recovery

In the wake of the Virginia Tech shooting, UVA announced that it was offering extra group meetings and prepared its counselors for a wave of psychological appointments. Yet the wave hasn't come, and Russ Federman, director of counseling services at UVA's Elson Student Health Center, says that's actually a positive sign.

"In times like this, we naturally turn to close friends and loved ones," he explains. "You don't seek professional help because there isn't something wrong with you. You're hurting, and so is everyone else."

4Better Or Worse