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We Are Virginia Tech

Posted by Chris Berry on April 11, 2008 in Frivolous Lawsuits

According to today’s issue of the Roanoke Times, the state has reached a settlement with families of the victims of the shootings at Virginia Tech. Details are not clear at this point, but what is known is that “the majority of the families” have agreed to a settlement totaling $11,000,000.00. While I have nothing but sympathy for the victims and their families, this settlement raises several disturbing questions.

The purported reason for the settlement was to protect the state and the school from lawsuits by the victims and their families. The fact is that the state is already protected by sovereign immunity, and as an agency of the state, Virginia Tech should be afforded the same protection.

Advocates for the victims families are quick to criticize the school for failing to notify students of the dangerous situation, and for failing to lock down the campus after the first shooting occurred. This position is patently absurd. The campus is a small city unto itself, with a daytime population approaching 40,000 people. Fewer than 25 percent of these people actually reside on campus. Somehow the school administration was supposed to anticipate this event, and have in place a system to instantaneously contact 40,000 people spread across several counties. Hindsight is always 20/20, but not a single critic of the administration would have been any better able to anticipate the tragedy that occurred.

The world we live in is not always a safe place, and tragedies do occur on a regular basis. Unfortunately, we have become conditioned not to accept tragedies for what they are, but to place blame and seek compensation from parties with even the most tenuous connection to the events, based solely on their ability to pay. This is exactly what has happened in the case of Virginia Tech. There is only one person responsible for the shootings, and that is the student who pulled the trigger. Since he is dead, and his family lacks the means to “compensate” the victims, they and their attorneys must place the blame elsewhere.

The federal government set a dangerous precedent when it established the compensation fund for victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Again, the purported reason for the settlement was to protect the airlines from lawsuits. The airlines were no more responsible for the attacks than the administration at Virginia Tech was responsible for the shootings. This was simply another case of placing blame and seeking compensation from the party most able to pay. Will the government be as quick to compensate victims if the next attack claims 300,000 lives instead of 3,000?

Critics of earlier settlement proposals complained that $100,000.00 was not adequate compensation for a human life. These people are absolutely correct. There is no amount of money that can make up for the loss of a loved one, but that is not the point. What these people fail to take into consideration is where the money must come from. Virginia Tech is not some “greedy corporation” with unlimited resources. To borrow a phrase, We are Virginia Tech.

As a state supported institution, the school’s main sources of funding are tax dollars and tuition. If the college were required to pay compensation to the victims and their families, that money would come out of the pockets of taxpayers and students. As taxpayers, you and I are no more responsible for the tragedy than the college administration, yet we are the ones who would ultimately foot the bill. The only other alternative would be to place the burden directly on the students in the form of tuition increases or cutbacks in programs. Either way, innocent parties are left holding the bag.

UPDATE

Read the follow-up article Finger Pointing And Program Cuts At Virginia Tech

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