“The relatively small monetary penalty is not the reason for this appeal,’’ Virginia’s attorney general, Kenneth Cuccinelli, said in a statement. “The university has already expended millions as a result of the tragedy. The main purpose of the appeal is to compel the federal Department of Education to treat Virginia Tech fairly and to apply a very poorly defined and subjectively applied federal law consistently and correctly.’’
The agency found Virginia Tech violated a federal campus safety law by waiting more than two hours after two students were shot to death before sending out a campuswide warning. By that time, student gunman Seung-Hui Cho was chaining shut the doors to a classroom building where he killed 30 more and then himself.
“Based on what they knew at the time, law enforcement officers and the Virginia Tech administration acted appropriately,’’ Cuccinelli said. “They did the best they could under the circumstances as they understood them. And that is the only fair standard by which their actions can be assessed.’’
A school spokesman, Larry Hincker, said the university looks forward to making its case, that its actions were consistent with the federal guidelines and those of several other universities under similar circumstances up until that time.
