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.

And the fact that a killer might pose a danger to students on campus is a reasonable assumption to make.

Particularly considering that Va. Tech. had 2 bomb threats last week, both of which targeted the engineering buildings.

If, for some reason the emails didn't get through, they should have put a general announcement on the school's website and initiated a phone tree. (It's slow - but at least you know people have the information.)

no system in place for protecting students from a campus-wide threat

I'm not sure we know this. It seems like they didn't employ a system, but has it been reported that they didn't have any crisis/disaster plan?

I think we're sort of posting from two different angles here. I don't deny that the campus may be facing a staggering amount of liability. I'm just viewing this story from where I sit in my office at my university and seeing how the best laid plans could easily fail to reach a large number of people.

Va. Tech. had 2 bomb threats last week, both of which targeted the engineering buildings.

When I was at Marquette, working at the main library, we had a standard "what to do" sheet for when a bomb threat was called in, that's how often that happened. The science library got even more bomb threats.

We have evacuation, fire, bomb threats and gas leaks. (Those are internal procedures, written by us, not campus.)