Virginia Tech victims families get 11 million.

#26
#26
100K a kid is chicken feed. if they can settle for that they should be jumping up and down. i think the university is somewhat culpable. a) they knew they had an unstable student and did nothing about it and b) they let the kids go to class when there was a shooting. i don't htink you guys remember all the reports that came out later. the university royally screwed up in many many ways. hindsight is 20/20, but 100K isn't much IMO.
 
#27
#27
I agree they are getting off cheap in reality but disagree that they should have to pay anything from a principle perspective.

I think royally screwing up is an overstatement. They could have done things better but I would guess there have been plenty of cases where there was a shooting death at an apartment on or around campus where the entire school wasn't locked down.

As for unstable students, I had one many years back (at NIU coincidentally) who was clearly on heavy meds and appeared to be trouble waiting to happen. In reality, there's not much you can do to them if their only crime to date is being unstable.
 
#28
#28
This is ridiculous. That is all. If money really does ease the pain of losing a child then something is wrong.
 
#31
#31
volinbham said:
I agree they are getting off cheap in reality but disagree that they should have to pay anything from a principle perspective.

I think royally screwing up is an overstatement. They could have done things better but I would guess there have been plenty of cases where there was a shooting death at an apartment on or around campus where the entire school wasn't locked down.

As for unstable students, I had one many years back (at NIU coincidentally) who was clearly on heavy meds and appeared to be trouble waiting to happen. In reality, there's not much you can do to them if their only crime to date is being unstable.
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i'm not saying vtech is anwhere close to 100% responsible, but maybe 5% responsible (i.e. they could have reduced the carnage if they had been smart). and considering that these settlements go by future earnings and we can safetly say most of these kids had something like 40-50 years of future earnings, 100K seems about right.
 
#32
#32
droski said:
i'm not saying vtech is anwhere close to 100% responsible, but maybe 5% responsible (i.e. they could have reduced the carnage if they had been smart). and considering that these settlements go by future earnings and we can safetly say most of these kids had something like 40-50 years of future earnings, 100K seems about right.
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So if you swerve on the interstate don't hit the guy beside you..but it makes him want to swerve and he does and then hits someone...you 5% responsible? You offering up some money?

As far as future earnings...I don't know of parents that are depending on the future earnings of their children.
 
#33
#33
allvol123 said:
So if you swerve on the interstate don't hit the guy beside you..but it makes him want to swerve and he does and then hits someone...you 5% responsible? You offering up some money?

As far as future earnings...I don't know of parents that are depending on the future earnings of their children.
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you car example isn't comparable. i'd say a comparable thing woudl be if say your seat belt was faulty suing the seat belt company for extra damage even though obviously they didn't cause the accident.

and future earnings are the standard way that damages are determined in a wrongful dealth case. it doesn't matter if the families need the money.
 
#34
#34
droski said:
you car example isn't comparable. i'd say a comparable thing woudl be if say your seat belt was faulty suing the seat belt company for extra damage even though obviously they didn't cause the accident.

and future earnings are the standard way that damages are determined in a wrongful dealth case. it doesn't matter if the families need the money.
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Your example isn't comparable. The seat belt company's primary responsibilty is to make safety equipment. A university is not in the business of keeping the student body safe from some random psycho.

University is not responsible for the wrongful deaths, the guy that is, is dead. Really crappy things happen life, money does not fix them.
 
#36
#36
allvol123 said:
Your example isn't comparable. The seat belt company's primary responsibilty is to make safety equipment. A university is not in the business of keeping the student body safe from some random psycho.

University is not responsible for the wrongful deaths, the guy that is, is dead. Really crappy things happen life, money does not fix them.
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this is where i disagree. i thinke the university IS in the business of keeping the student body safe. that should be one of it's highest priorities. and the fact is if the university was on the ball a lot of lives could have been saved
 
#37
#37
They are no more responsible than society at large. Universities are for educating people. While they should certainly operate with a certin level of common sense...this situation does not fall on them.
 
#38
#38
i disagree. parents trusted these universities to keep there children safe. i dont' think this is the same as suing the mall where a guy shoots a bunch a people. the kids are living there and spending much of their time on campus. the university IMO has implicit duty to keep these kids safe as much as possible and if they screw up they should pay.
 
#40
#40
droski said:
i disagree. parents trusted these universities to keep there children safe. i dont' think this is the same as suing the mall where a guy shoots a bunch a people. the kids are living there and spending much of their time on campus. the university IMO has implicit duty to keep these kids safe as much as possible and if they screw up they should pay.
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Last I checked..these are adults at school. Any parent that thinks a college can protect their child from a maniac hell bent on murdering is delusional.
 
#41
#41
When I am asked about safety, I always reply what is safe and where can it be found in the United States?
 
#42
#42
There is a valid argument that certain people on the VT staff saw this coming; the warning signs were written on the wall. Distrubing creative writing assignments, harassing female classmates, etc.

It was even well documented that Cho was an antisocial psycho and needed counciling; yet no one acted. The system broke down and the ticking time bomb that so many people heard all along went off.
 
#43
#43
SWIL said:
There is a valid argument that certain people on the VT staff saw this coming; the warning signs were written on the wall. Distrubing creative writing assignments, harassing female classmates, etc.

It was even well documented that Cho was an antisocial psycho and needed counciling; yet no one acted. The system broke down and the ticking time bomb that so many people heard all along went off.
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Why do you think that is?
 
#45
#45
utvolpj said:
because the lawsuit would have cost more than $11 mil
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Not a bad start.....

I attended a Southern Police Institute Forum with regards to this whole matter.

It was given by the head of the Virginia State Police, the whole situation was mind bogling.
 
#48
#48
OrangeEmpire said:
Not a bad start.....

I attended a Southern Police Institute Forum with regards to this whole matter.

It was given by the head of the Virginia State Police, the whole situation was mind bogling.
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care to share some of the insight you learned?
 
#49
#49
Initially, they thought they had found the shooter in the town of Blacksburg.

Of course you are probably wondering, what is he talking about.

When VT PD arrived at the dorm they found the girl and the ra in her room with gun wounds. The male ra was in his underwear.

VT PD through investigation of the room found out she had recently broke up with a boyfriend and on his myspace page he had a great interest in firearms.

Blacksburg PD was notified immediately and the suspect was picked up with a half an hour and detained for questioning.

In short, it looked as if the situation was domestic violence/angry lover.
 
#50
#50
OrangeEmpire said:
In short, it looked as if the situation was domestic violence/angry lover.
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This is exactly why the VT situation is not comparable to the seatbelt analogy.

In many tragedy's, things could have been done differently to lessen the severity of the situation. That doesn't mean there was responsibility to do so.

In this case, it is entirely feasible and probably the right reaction if you think you got the guy and it's a domestic dispute. Locking down the campus (if this was the case) would have been criticized.

In the words of Dennis Leary - Life sucks, wear a helmet.
 
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