and I'd be surprised if the school didn't have procedures in place for making school-wide announcements.

Especially considering that there was an incident with an escaped prisoner there on campus just last Fall where a sheriff's deputy (? a law enforcement guy) was killed.

(I couldn't stand watching Flavor of Love for more than about ten minutes, but Charm School was kind of entertaining.)

Thank god someone else has admitted to watching this first. I am still ashamed to say that I've seen the Flavor of Love show, and even more horrifingly, the New York show, though only in about five-minute bursts, since that's all my poor brain can take.

The New York show was a lot more entertaining once I decided that she was based on Miss Piggy.

I got stupidly into I Love New York, and had to force myself not to watch the finale.

And when I was last in school, I lived way off campus and checked my school email sporadically, and would totally have shown up well after an announcement to stay home had gone out. Yikes.

There's another angle to consider. There will be lawsuits -- it's just the way things are in our society.

And even if VT eventually wins, there's going to be a lot of expense involved. Lawyers will have to defend the university, and even if there are in-house counsel to do that, their salaries can't be chickenfeed. Plus those lawyers will have to talk to a lot of people at the university -- who'll spend their time explaining things to the lawyers instead of doing their regular jobs.

Plus, let's face it, the publicity will decidedly not help the university attract students.

The Washington Post has a Q&A with a student from about an hour ago: [link]

There's nothing new here, but a flavor of what this student's mood is and what it's like on the campus.

So, I'm watching Work Out on Bravo for the first time, and it is truly amazing how people can make their living on reality tv -- one of the trainers is Rebecca from the Amazing Race (with the ex-boyfriend with the wierd hair)!

I've been watching this season. I want to like it, but so much of it seems canned, or at least, exaggerated for TV.

And when I was last in school, I lived way off campus and checked my school email sporadically, and would totally have shown up well after an announcement to stay home

My cousin at VTU lives off campus and didn't know what had happened at all until my mom called him from DE. And then he was all "I think I'll go over to campus!" I think she talked him out of that though.

I've been watching this season. I want to like it, but so much of it seems canned, or at least, exaggerated for TV.

Yeah, it didn't really grab me.

A case with two victims is very specific. I can see how police wouldn't have any reason to suspect a spree killing would follow.

I can't imagine the logistics of locking down a 25,000 student campus.

No kidding.

I think emails, calling RAs, announcement systems, voice mails and cancelling classes are reasonable precautions to take if the police think there is a killer on campus. And the fact that a killer might pose a danger to students on campus is a reasonable assumption to make. The fact that the school apparently took no precautions and had no system in place for protecting students from a campus-wide threat, no matter how porous those precautions may be in practice, will expose the school to significant liability.