Virginia Tech fined $5,000 in connection with response to 2007 massacre

The federal government has fined Virginia Tech $5,000 for a violation of a campus safety law in connection with the 2007 massacre at the university's Blacksburg campus. The Washington Post reports that the fine, ordered by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, follows a finding that Virginia Tech had inconsistent policies on the timely warning of safety threats and failed to disclose one of them as required under the federal Clery Act. In 2012, Duncan fined Virginia Tech $27,500 for another violation of the law after finding that the school failed to issue a timely warning to the campus on April 16, 2007, as a gunman was on the loose. The gunman, Seung Hui Cho, shot 32 people to death before killing himself. The university has denied wrongdoing, and school officials have said they are weighing a possible legal challenge to the fines.