Thursday, January 14, 2010

Three questions...

...for Gary Margolis:

“Virginia Tech changed the way we think about campus safety,” said Gary Margolis, former chief of police at the University of Vermont and now a consultant hired to deliver the workshops. “Schools have to address the issue.”

1. Did he really say that with a straight face and without snickering?
2. Does he really believe it?
3. Does he really expect the rest of us to believe it, considering the fact that most college students are still sitting ducks, that when the shit hits the fan college students are still going to be waiting for people with guns to defuse the situation?

You know that's very likely the way it's going to be, too, as the students are and have been more or less conditioned to believe that those people are responsible for their personal safety. (I honestly wonder what they'd say if they knew that the courts have ruled that the cops aren't responsible for their individual safety, but the safety of the population at large...) What exactly has changed about the way schools think about campus safety? I saw further down in the story a bit about Virginia Tech forming a threat assessment team -- but honestly, what good is that when someone escapes the team's attention and goes on another rampage?