Some April 16th families think Virginia Tech’s president should quit

At least half the families of the 32 students and faculty members murdered at Virginia Tech last year want President Charles W. Steger to step down, a survey by the Richmond Times-Dispatch found.

Many of the families also want Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum to leave.

The survey found discontent among most family members with Tech’s leadership, despite repeated efforts by university officials to explain their actions on April 16, 2007, and in the year and a half since then.

That discontent also has continued despite a monetary settlement that 28 of the 32 families accepted from the state. Though those families forswore any legal grievances, many have not put aside their anger and grief.

The Times-Dispatch sent e-mails to 29 of the 32 families. Sixteen said Steger should resign, five want him to remain president, and one was noncommittal. Seven families did not respond. Three could not be reached.

In response to the survey, some family members wrote passionate, lengthy e-mails detailing the pain they still suffer after the deaths of their loved ones, as well as the frustration they feel about how Tech handled the unfolding massacre and its aftermath.

“From the beginning, we have felt Steger and Flinchum both should have either been fired or voluntarily stepped down,“ wrote Jennifer Herbstritt of Pennsylvania, whose brother, Jeremy, was attending an advanced hydrology class in Norris Hall when he was fatally shot by fellow student Seung-Hui Cho.

“The mistakes they made either indirectly or directly resulted in the death of my brother. My brother is forever dead, and this breaks my heart,“ she said. “Every day, I wake up to the same nightmare time and again. I’ll do so until the day that I die.“

For more than a year, many family members have dogged Steger and Flinchum with questions about how the events of April 16 unfolded, focusing their attention on Tech officials’ response to the initial slayings of two students in West Ambler Johnston Hall.

More than two hours passed after those killings before Tech leaders sent an e-mail to students about a shooting on campus. Within 15 minutes of that notice, Cho stormed into Norris Hall, chained the doors shut and began his rampage with two handguns. He killed himself as police closed in.

Some family members believe had Tech sent out an alert immediately after the first shootings, many students would have stayed away from Norris Hall. A task force assembled by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine faulted Flinchum’s police department for not asking Steger and senior officials to put out a campuswide alert.

“Our only child Caitlin was killed that day in French class,“ wrote Marian and Chris Hammaren of upstate New York. “If these two could have used some common sense, she would still be with us as well as many of our other dear ones. As you might imagine, the silence in our house is maddening.“

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The families’ belief that Steger should step down runs against a strong current of public support for the president.

Tech’s students and alumni, as well as the school’s governing board, have shown unflagging support for the president since the campus massacre. Supporters across Virginia who received copies of the survey sent The Times-Dispatch testy notes for even broaching the subject of Steger’s performance.

Tech’s board of visitors last year passed a resolution of unanimous support for the president, and Rector John R. Lawson II said this month that board members, while sympathetic to the grieving families, still believe Steger did a good job on April 16 and in the following months.

“We’ve never seen the president’s resignation as any kind of solution to anything,“ Lawson said.

Elizabeth Hilscher, whose daughter was killed in her dorm room at West Ambler by Cho, is angry about the support Steger receives.

“Many think that Steger has done an exemplary job of getting his campus back on track. Those who think so, in my opinion, do not have all the facts and do not understand that ‘the business as usual’ attitude is damaging to students and faculty on campus as well as to those of us directly involved in the massacre,“ she wrote. “We would have some sense of closure on things if Steger were to leave the university. He failed to maintain a safe campus, and he fails every day in his ability to understand just exactly what did happen.“

Some of the families told Kaine at private meetings Nov. 22 and 23 that Steger should resign or be fired. Kaine, in a radio address Nov. 26, said Steger’s fate is not up to him. It “is a matter for the [Tech] board to decide.“

Earlier this month, Kaine spokesman Gordon Hickey said that remains Kaine’s position. He added that Kaine is trying to determine whether a task force’s report on the massacre should be corrected, an action some family members have requested.

Kaine also said he believed the “majority position” of the families is not to fire someone but to focus on making change.

One of the five families responding to the survey in support of Steger echoed Kaine’s remark.

Dave McCain, whose daughter Lauren was fatally shot at Norris Hall, said only Cho was to blame for the massacre. He wrote: “I FULLY believe that President Steger and Police Chief Flinchum did the best they could under the circumstances they were in. I also believe that any other choice they made would have resulted in the loss of life. It might not have been the 32 precious lives that were lost, but it would have been other precious lives lost, nonetheless. Lauren’s life has touched thousands of people.“

Brian Cloyd, whose daughter Austin was killed in Norris Hall, strongly supported Steger and Flinchum.

“Even if we assume, with the benefit of hindsight, that President Steger and Chief Flinchum made mistakes on the morning of 4/16/07, we need to accept the fact that well-intentioned people can make mistakes,“ he wrote, “especially when they are dealing with an unexpected and unprecedented situation that is entirely beyond their experience and training.“

Contact Carlos Santos at (434) 295-9542 or .

Contact Rex Bowman at (540) 344-3612 or .