Virginia Tech Disputes Jury Verdict (with Related Video)
April 15, 2013
Virginia Tech President Charles Steger says the university acted properly after the 2007 shootings.
After a jury found that Virginia Tech was liable for damages for not issuing earlier warnings about a campus shooting in 2007, President Charles Steger says the university maintains its position that it acted properly.
"We stand by our long-held position that the administration and law enforcement did their absolute best with the information available after the dormitory shootings on the morning of April 16, 2007," Steger wrote in a letter to faculty and staff.
The school was found negligent last month for failing to warn students that morning about a possible gunman on campus after two students were fatally shot by student Seung-Hui Cho. Cho subsequently went to Norris Hall, where he killed 30 people.
The jury concluded that the university should have issued warnings to let the campus community know of the potential danger. Steger says in his letter that Cho's crimes "were an unprecedented act of violence that no one could have foreseen."