Macbeth
Banned
+2,444|5842

A jury has found Virginia Tech negligent for delaying a campus warning of the first shootings in a 2007 campus massacre that left 33 dead.

Jurors returned the verdict Wednesday in a wrongful death civil suit brought by the parents of two students who were killed on April 16, 2007, in the most deadly mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

Jurors deliberated for 3½ hours before awarding $4 million to each family, and the state immediately filed a motion to reduce the award. State law requires the award to be capped at $100,000.

The families of Erin Peterson and Julia Pryde said the two might be alive today if Virginia Tech police and administrators warned the campus of two shootings in a dorm 2 ½ hours before Seung-Hui Cho (sung wee joh) ended his killing spree, then killed himself.

Virginia Tech officials said they believed the first shootings were isolated.
So are the parents trying to get blood money from a random unpredictable tragic event or is Virgina Tech responsible for not fully alerting all the students and locking down the school or something? I'm voting blood money. There really wasn't a precedent for something like this and there isn't much of anything they could have done on a huge campus. Considering the shooter was another student..good luck locking down the school or something.

I could be wrong though!
HITNRUNXX
Member
+220|6966|Oklahoma City
I don't think blood money.

I think most likely they
1) Need someone to blame and hold accountable, and the shooter is dead.
and
2) They want the school to be punished for something to such a degree that they put measures in place to prevent it from happening again
and
3) They want to make an example out of them for other schools, so each of THEM put measures into place to prevent this from happening.

I am not saying I am right, but as a parent, no amount of money in the world would make my pain go away in this scenario, but I would want to make sure no one else ever had to go through the same thing.

But like you said, this was a random and unpredictable scenario, and there really was no precedent.

On the flip side, I hate how many laws can limit the payout in some situations (especially where a death is concerned) but frivolous law suits can run rampant for millions of dollars over things like burning oneself on hot coffee.

On the flip-flip side, I hate how many of these cases rule for XYZ amount, when that amount is above the cap, and more court time has to be repeated to sort it all out. Enforce the cap or get rid of it.

*Edited for horrible typing*

Last edited by HITNRUNXX (12 years, 10 months ago)

Board footer

Privacy Policy - © 2025 Jeff Minard