Just a few hours ago, an assailant, who is believed to have acted alone, went on a shooting rampage across the Virginia Tech campus. He started his rampage in one of the dorm buildings and then moved across campus to an engineering building where the majority of his shooting occurred. There was a two hour period between his initial attack in the dorm building and his shooting in the engineering building. Emergency response personnel arrived on campus shortly after the first 911 call was made from the dorm building. Although police officials responded quickly to the first call, they were unable to stop the assailant before he shot dozens more students. According to CNN, the current count on fatalities is at 32, with many more students injured.
The news media has been covering this incident all morning long and it seems that their coverage will continue on for days if not weeks or months. Obviously, the main priority of all people involved in this tragedy is to find answers to who was behind these murders and what was the motive behind the shootings. The next priority for all Virginia Tech administrators and city police officials is to start a PR campaign that promotes the idea that Virginia Tech is making strides to make the campus a safe place. The news media's extensive coverage on this tragedy is going to make damage control a necessity. Campus officials are going to need to make press releases, set up news conferences, and make television or radio appearances in order to get their messages out to the effected publics. They will need to focus on the positive actions they have taken to help those harmed by this event, such as setting up counselling services. They will also have to try and convince students and the parents of Virginia Tech students that the school is not a dangerous place to be. Sugar-coating over this situation is not going to be possible, so crisis PR tactics are going to need to be used.
For up to date information on this situation check out CNN.com
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