The Heart of Virginia Foundation was created in the wake of 4/16/07 to raise awareness for the root cause of the tragedy, “Mental Heath, Illness, and a system that is underfunded and perpetuates Stigma”. The mission of The Heart of Virginia Foundation is to raise awareness of a desperate need for expanded and accessible mental health and well being programs, and to erase the stigma of mental illness through education and community outreach.

The Heart of Virginia Foundation is the only organization born out of the tragedy at Virginia Tech that recognized the tragedy and is working to find solutions to address the needs outlined through recommendations and suggestions made by the national heads of Mental Health, Education, Justice, Health and Human Services, and Police officials following a report ordered by President Bush only five days after the tragedy. One of the main recommendations in the report in regards to mental health recommended efforts to de-stigmatize mental illness, reduce student isolation, and encourage students to seek help for themselves and others. Myself and other concerned citizens created The Heart of Virginia Foundation to give a voice to those who feel they are without one, to build bridges through strategic partnerships with community, public, and private entities, and to ensure that the underlying lesson about the root cause and mental health and illness aspect of this tragic event doesn't go unnoticed or simply “slip through the cracks.”

My name is Tommy Edwards and I am the founder of The Heart of Virginia Foundation. My life was changed forever on the morning of April 16^th 2007 by a series of events that lead to deaths of 33 students and faculty members of Virginia Tech. Although I didn’t know any of the people killed, that day I dedicated my life to making sure their deaths were not in vain. We, as a culture, lmust learn from the mistakes that were made in the system as well as look at what we can proactively do to prevent this type of tragedy from occurring again.

I was living in San Diego, California. At the time, I was in Virginia visiting family for Easter and helping with the family business. After the events at Virginia Tech, I decided to move home and do something to help. In the days following April 16, 2007, I was on the road making deliveries as far away as Maine. Everywhere I went I was confronted with raw emotion as I was asked if I knew anyone that was killed at VT as they saw the license plates and VT stickers on the truck. Each time I got gas or checked into motels, it was a constant topic of conversation. Every paper and media outlet had what seemed like 24hr coverage of the “Virginia Tech Massacre.” The day of the shootings I was shocked by the headline “33 dead at Virginia Tech” and felt compelled to do something to help in some way. The term “Mentally Ill” and phrase “Slipped through the Cracks” kept being repeated.

To draw into focus I must explain my connection to Virginia Tech and my passion in mental health through a brief personal history. You may ask why I was so moved and felt a responsibility to do something as drastic as getting rid of anything I couldn’t fit in my van and moving more than 2,000 miles to embark on launching a non-profit organization, with no seed money or knowledge of how to do so.

I earned the nickname “Touchdown Tommy” for scoring 57 touchdowns in two years at Radford High School, which is located 14 miles from Blacksburg, and awarded 7 All-American Honors as a senior. I then attended Virginia Tech on a football scholarship from 1992-94 and wore the same number, 33, as my father, Ken, a member of the Virginia Tech Sports hall of fame.

While leading the nation in scoring for all levels of college football as a freshman and setting records as a student athlete at Virginia Tech, I was suffering from the onset of mental illness. It eventually led me to transfer to Boise State after two football seasons and three years at Virginia Tech. After only one year in Boise, I quit football and dropped out of school completely, never returning.

Over the next ten years, my life was a constant roller coaster. I fought alcoholism, drug addiction, and struggled with homelessness. During times of sobriety, I was hyper-productive and became a professional skateboarder, artist, poet, and musical performer.

My family refused to believe there was anything wrong with me. My coaches assumed my bizarre and deteriorating condition was behavioral in nature and chose punitive actions in attempt to get me to straighten up and act right. My friends and teammates both loved and feared my strange and spontaneous behavior. My aunt was the only one who saw the warning signs for what they were, mental illness(es), while my coaches and parents were unwilling to accept this as truth.

My aunt, a longtime secretary in the engineering department at Virginia Tech, made appointments for me to see a therapist when I was a student there. I was unable to make the appointments unless someone would pick me up and take me. I missed too many appointments and the therapist refused to continue treatment. I went to my family doctor, explained the debilitating depression, and was prescribed antidepressants. The medications seemed to help for a while, but then I became very agitated. I couldn’t sleep and was isolating from friends, family, and teammates.

I stopped going to practice and considered suicide regularly. I drank heavily and, on a number of occasions, stuck a 12 gage shotgun in my mouth. I would load it, chamber the shell, stick in my mouth and start thinking about my family and the embarrassment that they would face. I feared the press would focus on my death as a drug related suicide once they discovered the pipe in my room that I used to smoke marijuana as a means of self medication.

I slipped quietly through the cracks, and without a trace “Touchdown Tommy” was gone. I had been the focal point of the schools' sports media marketing campaign. They used my image on everything form t-shirts to billboards, and yet I was left to my own confusion and illness. When I asked Frank Beamer for time off to “get my head together and recover”, I was told that was not an option. I took the advice of a few teammates and family and transferred to a school 2,000 miles away (Boise State) only to find myself isolated and further deteriorating.

For the next ten years, I struggled to understand the uncontrollable fluctuations in my physicality, erratic emotions, heightened passion for life, and inability to contribute as a citizen in a tangible way. I tried to 'fix' myself through a myriad of outlets: becoming a vegetarian, spiritual searching, self medicating, sobriety, moving often, changing jobs, changing friends, and throwing myself into many projects that tested my intellect and every fiber of my being.

I endured being judged and looked down on by my closest friends and family. I felt like my life was a cruel joke. I once had the world in the palm of my hand and now it had slipped through my fingers like water. I literally watched myself fall apart. I felt powerless and was unable to do anything to stop myself. The worst part of it all, was the guilt I felt for being flawed. This developed into an intense self-hatred that further fueled my downward spiral.

Facts and Figures about Mental Health on Campus

For a young person, a college or university campus is an exciting place with lots of new things to explore. For many, it can be overwhelming. Americans ages 17-25 are one of the most “at risk” demographics for the onset of mental and emotional illness and suicide. Students experience a completely new social setting, one that is relatively unsupervised and often isolated from home. The setting includes of binge drinking, experimentation with substances, self image and eating disorders. That setting, coupled with the stress of academics, can be more than some students (young adults) can handle. Without a strong and approachable support network (residential and academic advisors, counselors, peers, and family), many students succumb to the onset of illness simply because they lack personal knowledge of mental health and/or fear the social stigma of being 'crazy'.

NAMI, The National Alliance on Mental Illness, states 1 in 4 Americans lives with mental illness every day. Many more self medicate. When substance and alcohol abuse are included this statistic, the number jumps to nearly 1 out of every 2 Americans, with 47% either living with illness and/or self-medicating to cope with the symptoms of something they are unwilling to face. Director of Prevention for the Missouri Department of Mental Health, Dottie Mullikin, states “at least half of mental illnesses manifest themselves by age 25.”

Reese Butler, the founder of 1-800-SUICIDE the national suicide hotline states, “Suicide is the number two cause of death for college age Americans, just behind vehicle related deaths”. Student suicides total some 1,100 a year nationwide. New York City-based college suicide-prevention program, The Jed Foundation, estimates that 1 in 10 college students have considered taking his or her own life. Many more suicide attempts go unreported. Campus suicides are rarely covered or reported on by news media. 

The National Survey of Counseling Directors, conducted in 2009 by the University of Pittsburgh, found that 94 % of University mental health counseling directors reported an increase in students with severe psychological conditions. The survey also found 91% of directors believe a greater number of students arriving on campus are already taking psychiatric medications. The increasing use of such medications means that more students with psychological problems are now able to keep themselves functional enough to make their way onto campuses across the United States. A clinical professor of social work at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Anna Scheyett, who researches campus mental health crises interventions says, “Many students who may not have even gone to college five to ten years ago are able to attend because they can control their mental illness with counseling and medication.” This creates further strain on already inadequate, understaffed, and underfunded mental health infrastructure and services.

The New England Journal of Medicine’s article, Falling through the Cracks- Virginia Tech and the Restructuring of College Mental Health Services by Miriam Shuchman M. D., states that colleges and universities are regulated by the Higher Education Act. Currently, the Higher Education Act has no standard for mental health requirements for any college or university campus. This means there are no standardized policies in place to follow up with students who are referred for counseling (court ordered or voluntary), for student health clinics, or community health providers. No mandatory, uniform protocols are in place to evaluate students upon re-entry, who have been on psychiatric leave or undergone mandatory hospitalization and/or temporary detention order for psychiatric evaluation, while enrolled at an institution of higher learning. There are no standards for mental health triage, ratio of counselors to students, and ratio of psychiatrist to students. Federal mental health education, prevention, and wellness campaigns or strategies are nonexistent.

The Journal perspective also reports a lack in cohesion between campus health clinics and campus counseling resources and centers. Though many shared the same building the did not share information. A rash of student suicides prompted change at New York University in 2005, appointing psychiatrist Henry Chung with the task of “integrating” the school’s mental health and medical services. Chung was struck by the poor communication among members of the health staff and that efforts were met with “a lot of mistrust.”

Director of Cornell University’s counseling center and President of the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors, Greg Eells, noted a “clash of cultures” between traditional counseling and the medical model of diagnosing psychopathology, as the main reason 65% of college health centers and counseling centers have no relationship at all. Most colleges and universities have no capacity for treating students with complex problems requiring coordinated care.

Chung also discovered that there was no mechanism for triage for students in crisis and in urgent need of clinical assistants. Students had wait weeks for a counseling appointment, even when in crisis. Many students never make the appointment, as their reaching out for help passes with the moment. As the student misses a critical opportunity that could assist in understanding ones mental and emotional health, well-being, and the very root of the crisis that may have led to the first call, he remains ill, which will effect the student and potentially every one that person encounters.

Both the report ordered by President Bush and the perspective in the New England Journal of Medicine agree that unclear interpretations of federal privacy laws (HIPAA, FERPA) remain causation for communications breakdown.

The Journal also noted a “profound shortage of psychiatrists” at colleges and universities in rural locations. During the fall of 2005 when Cho was hospitalized, Virginia Tech’s staff psychiatrist left and had not been replaced. At this same time, an article in the Collegiate Times stated a lack of trained professionals could mean “serious problems with students who may be depressed or suicidal.”

College and university mental health clinics are often understaffed and utilize a model of evaluation and admission that is counter productive and insensitive to students seeking treatment or counseling. The evaluation methods are often conducted over the phone or online with no personal contact by professionals trained in crisis intervention. I have spoken with a number of current and former Virginia Tech students who were turned away by Cook Counseling Center. They were informed they did not meet the criteria for an in office consult, or were told that they were fine and sent on their way, only to further deteriorate and possibility of dropping out of school completely.

In summation, colleges and universities fail to meet the mental health needs of students on almost every level of care, as there is a lack of federal standards or guidelines to protect students from university neglect and negligence. There is no national regulation for integrated information sharing or coordination of campus and local resources regarding mental health, community health services, and law enforcement. With 1 in 4 Americans living with mental illness and the majority of mental illnesses manifesting during college years (young adulthood), we must create national polices and standards for mental health. This may be done by integrating existing models from campus programs with models existing in organizational structures, such as the US military, where mental health policies were initially met with great apprehension.

Facts about April 16, 2007 and Expert Opinions

The logistical details and communication barriers that led to the events that transpired on April 16^th 2007 are well documented in a number of reports that resulted from investigations and inquiries by the following: an independent panel appointed by the Governor, the Virginia state police, the Virginia state inspector general for mental health services, and the Virginia Tech. The result was an overwhelming focus on security and creating student watch lists to help predict potential future threats in the student population. Essentially, it appears an attempt to capture lightning in a bottle, rather than creating solutions to the main issues, such as: prevention, education, well-being initiatives, organizational restructuring, integration of information, infrastructure, and adaquate staff to provide standards of care that are in alignment with need (ratio) according to national average of persons living with mental illness, student population, and mental health providers.

Following the shootings at Virginia Tech, President Bush ordered a report from the heads of the departments of Education, Justice, Health and Human Services. David Shern PhD, President and CEO of Mental Health America, who participated in the creation of this report, called the final report a “Missed Opportunity”. He notes the report “fails to confront or even acknowledge the fundamental problem” brought to light by this tragedy, that “our nation’s mental health system is drastically underfunded and fails on nearly every level to provide Americans living with mental health conditions with the effective community-based mental health services they need” and that the “government – at every level- has failed to harness science-based methods to successfully treat persons with even the most severe mental health conditions.” The report does acknowledge “It is critical to get people with mental illness the services they need”, but failed to make recommendations needed to achieve this critical goal.

Shern added, ”If we are serious about averting such tragedies, the federal government must fund programs to get people the services they need. Over two thirds of adults and over half of children with diagnosable mental health conditions do not receive the mental health treatment and services they need. Society pays in welfare costs, lost productivity, hospitalization, homelessness, needless incarcerations and suicides.” Shern urged President Bush and Congress “to Recognize the Virginia Tech Tragedy for what it really was- a sign of our failure to address the largest public health and economic concern in the nation” and stated “In terms of fundamental lessons learned, the Tech shooting is not ultimately an issue of law enforcement or information sharing.” It is, in fact, also a mental health issue.

The report did include recommendations to “de-stigmatize” mental illness, reduce student isolation, and encourage students to seek help for themselves and others, but it failed to make recommendations as how to achieve these goals. The report also cited concerns about “an insufficient number of skilled mental health workers”, but again, made no recommendation as how to meet the deficit of need. The report did focus on information sharing between school officials, mental health professionals, and law enforcement, and streamlining processes prohibiting access to firearms to dangerous individuals.

As time passes and new tragedies avert our attention, we must look to the experts for recommendations and suggestions. We must never forget what we have learned, while continuing to create and increase the necessary political momentum to sustain long-term investments in community resources. We must also ensure that fundamental legal changes are made in order to transform an antiquated and fragmented system that focuses enormous efforts on managing access to scarce resources of a grossly underfunded public community based system of voluntary services.

Virginia Tech after 4/16/07

In the days following, and continuing for three years, the Virginia Tech community has come together with great spirit, community pride, tremendous conviction to heal, move beyond the tragedy and to not be defined by it. Yet the event has been paraded in the national media to raise funds and capitalize on the opportunity to profit from the tragedy. While many in the community, university, and state administrations want to move beyond the event, many of the victims' families and those affected by the shootings feel efforts have led to insensitivities that may have been avoided through genuine outreach and common sense.

Roger O’Dell, father of Derrick O’Dell (who was shot in a classroom in Norris Hall), said “The shocks to families of the injured and deceased were many, and some of those shocks need never have occurred. There was a prevailing insensitivity, and it was most often excused with explanations that Virginia Tech officials had never had to deal with such a horrific situation before. Without prior experience, how would they ever have known how to act? That may be so, but it does not deny the cold, hard fact that many insensitivities took place. The end result was disbelief, anger, and distrust, by those who already were suffering from severe emotional stress.”

Roger, who is also the sitting chairman of the board of directors for The Heart of Virginia Foundation, recalls his first official outreach and liaison with state officials:

“The belongings of students and faculty remained behind in Norris Hall after the injured were rescued and the dead were removed. Those belongings, consisting of jackets, backpacks, books, notes, calculators, etc., then became criminal evidence and were transported to the regional State Police headquarters in west Salem, about 30 minutes away. There, the evidence was processed in a drying room. Why? To dry the blood!

Some of the injured students wanted to continue with their studies when classes were resumed a week after April 16^th. To do so, they may have wanted to reclaim their belongings, which were essential to their class work and assignments. But the evidence was not yet available. Another week passed, and the State Police decided that most belongings could be returned. State Police cars were dispatched to take them too many homes, especially to the homes of the deceased. At the same time, calls went out to those nearby to come pick up the belongings. Stern warnings were issued, advising that the students involved should not come themselves, rather a parent or friend. Why? Again, the blood, now dried. Some items were blood-soaked, and thoughts surrounding whose blood it might be could become extremely emotional.”

This was so, even for some parents who were retrieving backpacks with books, notes, and calculators. Roger O'Dell, father of Derek, lives nearby in Roanoke County, and was among the first to arrive. Again, he was warned that seeing the blood could be very emotional. And it was. He was presented with belongings to identify, including a blood-soaked backpack. By then, he had heard the story told and re-told by Derek and some of his fellow survivors. He knew whose blood likely remained on Derek's backpack. Some of it was probably from the student who sat right beside Derek, now dead. Some of it may have dripped from student’s bodies as they were carried out. Some of it was surely Derek's own blood. Now all were mixed together and dried in a display of disgusting red. Roger thought, “what a cruel way to create blood brothers and sisters!”

Hokie Spirit and the Hokie Spirit Fund

Hokie spirit and school spirit are something I know something about, as sports held a special place in the hearts of my family. My father Ken, oldest sister Angie, and I were all highly competitive athletes at VT. The competitive drive and the illusion of connectedness to a larger mass ideal or purpose of being i.e. “School Spirit” can override logic, which may cause a person or group to disregard ones health and well being. One may endure physical injury and potential death for the glory of victory. After big wins, fans storm the field and tear down the goal posts, risking serious injury or death as the goal posts fall. Fans have also rioted in the streets, burning and damaging property.

On the surface, it seemed Virginia Tech was taking the lead at getting to the bottom of the situation and working to help the victims and families heal and move forward. Underneath the “We are Virginia Tech, We shall prevail” spirit, there was a concerted effort to control information both coming into and going out of the university in regards to the shooting and any aspect of subject matter that might seem to pertain to the anything that might insinuate blame or draw further attention to any missing links in the chain of command or any individual accountability. I was informed by a number of current and former Tech employees, that there was a gag order implemented in the days following the shooting to minimize potential collateral damage and liability to the university.

Virginia Tech utilized an extensive media branding campaign to market the “Hokie Spirit Fund” that was created and managed by the University Development Corporation to act as a repository for a flood of contributions that began pouring in from people and organizations around the world that wanted to help the victims and their families. The branding campaign stands strong as Hokie Spirit ribbons, Hokie Nation t-shirts, and “neVer forgeT” stickers are still selling and can be seen across the planet. I encountered someone in California whose niece had sent her a t-shirt only days after the shooting, at her request, as a show of support. Virginia Tech licensed merchandise was sold out everywhere for months after the shooting.

The University also utilized the captive media to advocate the public give only to the Hokie Spirit fund and to be wary of anyone else collecting funds. This created a bottle neck of incoming funds, capitalizing as fully as possible on the fund raising potential. This negated the potential for giving to existing community based nonprofits, who were providing actual support and services to victims, their families, and to the residents of the greater New River Valley after the shooting, in support of augmenting the needs of the university, as well as the community in which the university dwells. Many victims and their families received assistance to offset unforeseen expenses incurred and ongoing support not offered by the state, Virginia Tech, or the Hokie Spirit fund.

Kenneth R. Feinberg, the Washington lawyer who previously served as Special Master of the September 11^th Victim Compensation Fund, drafted a proposed distribution plan for the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund a couple of weeks after being appointed. Feinberg directed the federal program to compensate relatives of victims of the September 11^th terrorist attacks, and will oversee the distribution of the $7.6 plus million that was donated to Hokie Spirit Fund after the April campus massacre. You may also remember that propaganda term “Never Forget” after the 9/11/2001 terror attacks. After 4/16/07, t- shirts and stickers, billboards and signs were produced that said “neVer forgeT” with the V and the T enlarged and designed to resemble the VT logo that Tech strictly controls to avoid trademark infringement.

My question is: “What are we not suppose to forget?” That 33 people died and 27 more were wounded because of failures in a system that is always first in line for budget cuts, always last on the agenda, and the lowest priority for reevaluation and improvement. Or, should we not forget the horror, shock, and grief felt by all who collectively are the “Hokie Nation” that extends across the whole planet, to every corner of the earth? Or, are we suppose to “Never Forget” to send money during times of nation crisis when called upon? I find it difficult to think that anyone could forget the worst mass shooing the history of the United States of America.

A university website states, “The Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund was created almost immediately after the April 16^th shootings at Virginia Tech and, in the months since, donors have contributed more than $7.6 million across 34 funds, including 32 named funds, one for each victim; a general scholarship fund; and a fund for the broad support of the university community and the families of those involved.” The fund was closed, but then reopened and remains an ongoing fund raising campaign at the top to page on The Office of Recovery and Support webpage and on other web pages hosted through campus websites.

Relatives of the Virginia Tech shooting victims demanded representation, in June of 2007, on a gubernatorial panel studying the killings, saying in a letter that they felt “ostracized”. Many also questioned the status of a memorial fund that has generated millions of dollars to honor the 32 victims of the student gunman.

The Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund was advertised for two weeks on the hit TV show, American Idol, and aggressively solicited funds through offers from across the board that included a $1 million donation by the New York Yankees and an exhibition game against the Tech baseball team. A number of entertainers contacted the university to try and help in some way, but were told that the university was not accepting offers for benefit performances.

In the days following the shooting, I contacted my former boss, Dean of Students, Tom Brown, and left a detailed message about wanting to assist in the development of a Farm Aid scale benefit concert at Lane Stadium to raise money, to create a positive public outreach that would acknowledge safety and mental health as a priorities in Virginia and on campuses and communities across America. I mentioned that I was contacting, among others, the Dave Mathews Band.

I had worked for Dean of Students Brown indirectly as an orientation leader the summer between my first and second year at Virginia Tech. Incidentally, Dean Brown had also overseen a Judicial Referral hearing I had received for possessing a water balloon slingshot on campus. The residential advisor that had given me the JR, was from my dorm and wasn’t fond of athletes. He had charged me with “possession of a weapon on campus” and confiscated it. At the hearing, it was just the Dean and me. The charge was dropped. We talked about football and the upcoming season. He let me go to his car, with his car keys, and retrieve the “weapon” even though it was against school policy.

I have attempted to contact Tom more than 30 times, each time leaving a clear message with my phone number. I have tried to reach out through the foundation to help illuminate the Presidential report findings and other data regarding mental health on college campuses, suggest solutions to meet the recommendations and challenges outlined in the report, and to assist in advising, planning, and implementing said programming. I have yet to receive a return phone call, even after the Virginia Tech Magazine wrote a feature about the foundation and the work I was doing in the winter issue of 2008 - 2009.

Cecelia Hovis of University Relations at Virginia Tech stated, “There are no broadcast arrangements as of yet and the university is not anticipating any.” Chris Clough of University Relations stated, “The university does not intend on making any profit from the concert, as logistical cost of the concert will be between $1 million and $1.2 million”. Although this concert will not go through the Virginia Tech Union, a member from VTU, Student Government and the Black Student Alliance, as well as, other student leaders from other groups, helped bring the concert together. Questions remain as to what source funded the logistical cost of the concert and if the funds were best utilized in light of the massive mental and emotional health fallout that will affect communities and campuses across the country for years to come. Perhaps the funds could have been used to create and fund an integrated mental health, wellness, and prevention campaign while supporting endeavors to create national standards for mental health for all campuses.

Lane Stadium, the workplace of Virginia’s highest paid state employee, Frank Beamer, was also the location of the concert. Protecting the field is a high priority. Officials had a little over a week to prepare the field for the football opener at home game against Ohio. The university took precautionary measures to preserve the field by purchasing protective flooring. The protective flooring that accounted for a large portion of the concert cost and will most likely not be used again as it killed some of the grass and left the field in visibly poor shape for the televised game. On a trip to visit friends in the athletic department to lay the ground work for a potential benefit for mental health at the concert, I learned this: the director of field maintenance, in protest, left the field visibly rough to prove a point, as he had fought against holding the concert in the stadium to begin with. No long-term effects on the field were incurred. As an athlete at Virginia Tech, we routinely played on dead grass that was painted green for televised broadcasts.

Nearly three years after the tragedy, The Roanoke Times reported in early April 2010, “The final Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund distribution plan, that gives families of students and faculty killed in the Virginia Tech shootings a choice of receiving a $180,000 payment or dividing that amount between a cash payment and either an endowed or partially endowed scholarship in the name of their loved one. Wounded victims who were hospitalized for 10 days and nights or more are eligible for a $90,000 payment plus tuition and mandatory fees at Virginia Tech for the remainder of their current program of study at the university.Those hospitalized for three to nine days and nights due to physical injuries qualify for $40,000 plus tuition and mandatory fees at Tech, Victims who suffered less serious physical injuries, as well as individuals who were in Norris Hall classrooms 204,205,206,207 and 211 and do not fall into other categories, are eligible for tuition and mandatory fees for the remainder of their current program of study at Virginia Tech or a $10,000 cash payment.” I wonder how far $10,000 will go to cover a life affected by a traumatic event of this magnitude?

The Office of Recovery and Support

From the office of Recovery and Support website, “The Office of Recovery and Support will provide support -- specifically including improved two-way communication and facilitation of support services -- for the families of those lost, the injured and their families, and others directly affected by the tragedy at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007. Further, the Office of Recovery and Support is the central campus location to manage broader efforts of the university community, such as commemoration activities.”

The Chairman of our board of Directors, Roger O’Dell, is the father of Derrick O’Dell, who survived being shot in Norris Hall. Derrick helped save the lives of other classmates by barricading the door with his body. Roger has had less communication and facilitation than what he had expected and found that he was playacted, pacified, and given the run around on several occasions in making attempts to reach out to the campus community to meet a number of suggestions and recommendations by the nation heads of Mental Health, Education, Justice, Health and Human Resources, and Police officials.

Roger and I showed up weeks before the 2^nd anniversary, after getting the email runaround, with a video camera, and were promptly scheduled an appointment 30 minutes later. The appointment was not to take place in the Office of Recovery and Support, but rather we were asked to meet in a cafeteria in a different building. We were met with great enthusiasm about our ideas and suggestions, but have seen no follow up and no further discussion with the Heart of Virginia Foundation. I know that Roger became frustrated, but has continued to reach out to Virginia Tech to try and develop lines of communication.

On the web page for the Office of Recovery and Support, you will find their purpose along with information about memorials and dedications, ribbons and rhetoric. At the top of the page you will find information about 'campus safety' on the left column and a 'The Hokie Spirit Fund' link on the right. Counseling resource links are on the bottom left, and included: Identifying and referring the distressed student, A faculty/staff guide, faculty polices on violence in the workplace, polices for dealing with violent, aggressive students, and finally campus counseling, phone, and web resources.

Cook Counseling Center and the Missing Files

In an inquiry leading up to the first anniversary of the shooting, I contacted Cook Counseling Center to ask what steps had been take to accommodate the mental health fallout that followed the shooting. I was told that they had hired one additional part time mental health counselor. With 1000’s of students, faculty, and staff living with increased fears, anxieties, and trauma associated with the aftermath of the worst mass murder in the history of America, the university started focusing on potential future treats rather than expand campus mental health resources. On April 6^th 2010, just ten days before the third anniversary of the shootings, I called Cook Counseling Center to inquire about services and changes made since the shootings. At first I got the answering service, it stated that all lines were busy and I should call back in five minutes. That extension was not accepting messages. I tried 3 more times over the course of the next half hour. I finally got a receptionist that had no information other than suggesting I go on the website. I asked if there were any peer support groups for those facing fears of anxieties leading up to the third anniversary and I was told I could make an appointment to see a counselor. I told the receptionist I didn’t want to waste her time, and that I was not a student. When I asked to speak with Director Chris Flynn, there was a long pause. She then asked who I was. After I explained who I was and why I was calling, she told me he was not available, and that he was in a meeting. She asked for my phone number to have him return my call, but I haven’t heard back. As with many of the messages I have left for officials at Virginia Tech, I don’t expect to receive a return phone call.

Internet links

Internet links on the VT website to, Internal Review Reports ordered by President Steager are listed on the site but links lead to blank web pages, unfound files, and broken links. They are listed as: Implemented recommendations, Security Infrastructure Group report, Information and Communications Infrastructure Group report, and Interface Group report. The implemented recommendations page was blank, so I’m assuming they haven’t implemented any of the recommendations. The rest were PDF files that would not open. It seems a shame the he didn’t recognize a need to request a report on campus mental health needs, challenges, and infrastructure. Asking questions like what is the mental health professional to student ratio, we can surmise that if 1 in 4 students live with mental illness at a school of roughly 28,000 students that approximately 7,000 students face mental health challenges daily.

Campus Safety and Emergency Information Systems

After the tragedy at Tech, focus was placed on security and information systems aimed at directly communicating alerts and emergencies through use of email, load speaker, Campus media resources, and personal communication devices. Focus was also placed on the creation of student watch list to help identify and keep tabs on students that have shown violent or threatening behavior or who have a history of psychiatric illness.

Ken Duckworth, Medical Director for the National Alliance on Mental Illness stated in The Virginia Tech Tragedy: Distinguishing Mental Illness from Violence, “The Surgeon General has reported that the likely hood of violence by people with Mental Illness is low,” and, “More often, people living with mental illness are the victims of violence.”

Opportunity Missed

In light of all that has been discovered and the recommendations of experts called upon by the president of the United States, it seems that Virginia Tech has done as little as possible to address the mental health needs on campus as a way of not acknowledging fault. As if to say, “Fix it, why? There’s nothing wrong here, nothing to see!”

Mental Health on the campus of Virginia Tech, as with many colleges and universities across America, still seems to be an “Under the Rug, Behind the Curtin” issue that takes low priority even when it is the root cause of the worst mass shooting in American history. There have been minimal steps taken to educate the student population about mental health through the creation of outreach and Anti-stigma campaigns within the campus community, as recommended in the report ordered by President Bush. The effort after the tragedy focused on damage control, cost invasive information systems that could alert the campus population of an ongoing situation or to communicate directive after the fact, and student watch lists.

Other Schools and States Respond to the VT Tragedy

The April 16^th 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech caused campuses and state officials across the country to take a closer look at their mental health policies and protocols. The beheading at Virginia Tech and the Northern Illinois mass shooting further accelerated focused efforts on a number of campuses in the process of restructuring campus mental health services.

University of California, Davis is setting the example in the ten school UC system, further impassioned through a sobering email from a former UC Davis Dean and current provost at Virginia Tech. As highlighted in UC Davis Student mental Health in the Spotlight by Dave Jones, UC Davis is meeting the demands of “the largest freshman class(5500) in the history of the entire UC system,” with the addition of two part time positions, one for a psychologist and one for an additional case manager. The school also received reinforcement through finding of a recent report addressing mental health services on all ten UC campuses, including UC Davis. The report grew out of reaction to the suicide of Adam Ojakianin December of 2004. Adam became the ninth student to commit suicide at Davis in a five year span.

In a move prompted by the Virginia Tech Shooting, the Missouri Department of Higher Education in partnership with the Missouri Department of Mental Health, teamed up to create the Higher Education Subcommittee of the Homeland Security Council. The subcommittee has detailed a two fold purpose to outline mental health first aid training for public colleges and universities, as well as, providing law enforcement personnel on private campuses. The plan proposes mental health first aid training as a part of regular campus personnel training, including residential advisors who have closer contact with student in the living spaces and may be the first to be alerted in time of crisis.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology restructured its mental health services after a rash of a dozen student suicides in as many years. As part of the restructuring, MIT officials created programs to assign a clinician to follow up on each student that misses an appointment, and has created a “doc-in-the-dorm” program by assigning each member of the mental health staff a dorm to do outreach.

Escalating School Violence in America

We are facing a disturbing trend in schools in the United States. Statistics from the US Department of Education and the Centers for Disease Control reveal school shootings are on the rise. Over the last 15 years, more than 350 people died in school shootings, and many more were injured. The Secret Service Safe School Initiative, a report compiled by the United States Secret Service and the US Department of Education, found that school shootings were most always planned, and were rarely impulsive acts. The report also found that other students were aware of the planned attack, but told no one.

Attending school in America has become a dangerous routine. The fear of death by a colleague or another student at the same school is greater than ever. The pattern of shootings at schools throughout the US is a terrifying trend. It’s impossible to predict when another troubled student will take measures directed at killing or injuring schoolmates or staff.

A series of unrelated murders of Virginia Tech students and other mental health related incidents that directly affected the university have drawn to review a potential link to an overall tend of escalating violence.

Prior to and following the shootings at Virginia Tech significant episodes of violence had occurred in the local community. At the onset of the 2006-2007 school year at Virginia Tech, an escaped fugitive, William Charles Morva was on the loose. Morva was a known threat in the community of Blacksburg, Virginia with known mental health issues. He had recently escaped from detention at the local Hospital. He killed a security guard and later killed a sheriffs deputy. He was on the run and was seen heading towards the direction of campus. This resulted in Virginia Tech going on lockdown on the first day of classes.

Since the shootings at Virginia Tech there was a copycat case on April 4, 2008 in South Florida. Twenty year old, Calin Chi Wong, was up on federal charges of threatening to re-enact the Virginia Tech shootings. Wong was ready to do so. Federal agents found 13 guns, including AK-47s and more than 5,000 rounds of ammunition in his home.

A little more than a year after The Tech Shootings, a young woman was stabbed to death and beheaded in a heavily populated café on the campus of Virginia Tech by a fellow student with a kitchen knife. Classes continued that day at Tech, with uneasy feelings felt by students and the surrounding communities, however, the event received surprisingly minimal media coverage in contrast to the media circus that followed the 4/16/07 tragedy.

In August 2009, two Tech students were murdered at a local rural recreation area. Both students were described as “Godly young people” by their minister. These murders are still unsolved. The slain bodies were discovered the next morning by a local resident. They had both been shot to death with no apparent motive or leads.

Most recently, in October of 2009, 19 year old Virginia Tech Student Morgan Harrington was abducted from the University of Virginia campus while attending a concert. Her skeletal remains were found in an isolated field about 15 miles from where she had been abducted. The tragic events taking place at Virginia Tech and on other college campuses are not isolated events, but evidence of a growing trend of violence. This growing trend desensitizes the masses to human tragedy, further fueling and acting as models to inspire future violent acts, and can be seen as an indicator for cultural health in general.

Coming Together

Less than a year after 4/16/07, on the campus of Northern Illinois University, a sociology graduate student opened fire in the auditorium, killing five students and wounding sixteen others. Virginia Tech’s response to this was to help coordinate an effort to show support by distributing 5,000 plus t-shirts at a Virginia Tech basketball game that stated, “Hokies for Huskys.” While this was a nice gesture, the funds required to produce the shirts could have gone towards providing support for the long term mental health fallout of such a mass media tragic event. The shirts remain solemn reminders in boxes, closets, and on thrift store hangers across Virginia and beyond.

Millions of dollars were spent on rhetoric and propaganda after the VT tragedy. This was aimed at creating the perception that everything is “Under Control”. The reality is the expert recommendations are overlooked and efforts are focused on not acknowledging blame or accountability in any way, shape, or form. In essence glorifying the shootings, while officials should have been supporting efforts through funding of expanded psychiatric services, ongoing outreach and education campaigns focusing on mental health and well being, and peer support groups.

While trends of escalating violence emerge, we must not confuse mental illness with violence. We must reiterate the statement made by Ken Duckworth, Medical Director for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, “ The Surgeon General has reported that the likelyhood of violence by people with mental illness is low,” and, “More often, people living with mental illness are the victims of violence.”

With entrenched social stigma associated with mental illnesses, the mental health consumer community fears that misinformation through sensationalized media coverage will reinforce stigma and undermine legislative advances in Virginia’s mental health system to promote and champion the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Illness programming focusing on the promotion of recovery, community integration, and self-determination.

Suggestions for Prevention: First Steps

We, at the Heart of Virginia Foundation, recommend the creation and implementation of multi-tiered education, anti-stigma, and prevention campaigns for mental and emotional health and wellbeing, which can be achieved through non-cost prohibitive utilization of existing programs, infrastructure, and campus media outlets. The campaign should be designed to educate students, faculty, and staff about mental and emotional health, and remove the myths and stigma that remain the primary barriers to professional help, and that allow people to remain in denial about the onset of emotional and mental illness. The outreach campaigns must be flexible to reach students in a voice that is culturally relevant to the population it serves. Myths and stigma perpetuate fear, and fear perpetuates denial.

We also recommend the creation of national standards for integrated student health and wellbeing programs and protocols, that share information and infrastructure, but leave room to allow for both schools of thought (classic psychotherapy, the medical model of psychopathology). Exploration and implementation of alternative models of self regulation and prevention based models of wellness, are essential to meet the rising demands and offset the stresses of the modern student.

Surgeon General C. Everett Koop convened an unprecedented Workshop on Violence and Public Health in October 1985, (U.S. DHHS, 1986). The participating experts strongly agreed that it was time public health perspectives and expertise were brought to bear on questions of crime and violence. With its emphasis on prevention of disease or injury, the public health approach of prevention to violence offers an appealing alternative to an exclusive focus on rehabilitation.

Public health practitioners and advocates have taken the lead in encouraging alliances and networks among academic disciplines, professions, organizations, and communities through strategic partnerships to make health (including Mental Health) concerns permanent public priorities and part of personal practices. Participants at the 1985 Surgeon General's conference emphasized the importance of convincing the public that violence (be it fueled by mental illness or not) and it’s prevention should be treated as a public health problem.

The conference recognized that primary prevention identifies behavioral, environmental, and biological risk factors associated with violence (mental and emotional health and wellbeing) and takes steps to educate individuals and communities and protect them from these risks.

Central to outreach, education, and protection is the principle that health promotion is best learned, performed, and maintained when it is integrated in individuals' and communities' daily routines and perceptions of what constitutes good health practices.

Large community stakeholders commissions should be encouraged in college and university towns that include public interests, schools, first responders, churches, health care, the international communities, mental health, along with other advocacy groups to develop a collective vision toward relevant longer term community supports and mental health services.

With the college years falling smack dab in the middle of the period associated with the onset of most mental illnesses, 1 in 4 Americans living with mental illness, and thousands of students committing or attempting suicide, we need to make mental and emotional health and wellbeing priority number one on campuses across the nation. We need to create and implement federal integrated health standards that include integrated health and counseling centers. We need federally trained campus liaisons designated to increase communication between health and counseling professionals, along with department heads, students, faculty and staff in regards to mental health concerns that regularly arise on campuses to help identify students in crisis and intervene in a compassionate yet mandatory assessment and follow up evaluation with a campus mental health evaluator.

Through education, outreach and efforts to erase the stigma of mental illness we can equip American students with the knowledge and vocabulary to understand and manage a broad spectrum of symptomology in regards to the onset mental and emotional health, wellbeing, and illness.

The Future

I must first state that I never in my life as a student athlete or orientation leader at Virginia Tech, thought that I would ever write such an emotionally taxing document or consider at length the subject matter included. This report is the equivalent of a primal scream to ensure that the “root cause” of this tragedy, Mental Health, not slip through the cracks, and to ensure that this is not another missed opportunity or list of forgotten statistics.

The Virginia Tech Tragedy has inspired change and restructuring of mental health and wellbeing programs, as well as, the creation of innovative new directives and programs that meet the mental health needs and challenges facing modern college and university campuses across America. The April 16^th shootings created enough incentive and political momentum to push through state wide higher education mental heath reform in Missouri, a move that created a new subcommittee of the Homeland Security Council.

An emotional email from Virginia Tech’s current Provost Mark McNemee inspired officials at the University of California Davis, where McNemee had been a Dean before coming to Tech, that inspired and shaped mental health program and policy development for the entire ten school University of California system.

In light of recent changes inspired by the 4/16/07 Virginia Tech tragedy and challenges brought to focus about mental health at American institutions of higher learning, it seems critical to establish a national directive and standard for mental and emotional health and wellbeing on campuses in America. As tuitions rapidly rise and school admissions balloon, institutions need to grow and develop health and wellbeing programs and integrated health centers on campus that foster and develop ongoing relationships with community based resources and leaders. We must insure that a community mental health plan be developed and put into place for mental health crises due to events of mass trauma and/or disaster.

Kerry Knox, Researcher at the University of Rochester, who has created an effective program aimed at suicide prevention for the US Air Force, believes that the success of the program is mainly due to its persistent championing by three and four star generals. As Knox embarks to implement the a same prevention program at MIT and five other universities in the US, she questions who will stand in the place of the high ranking generals to crack the whip in an academic setting.

In closing, it seems that effective long term recovery programs, efforts, and a true sense of moral and social responsibility for escalating occurrences of public violence, such as the Virginia Tech Tragedy, would bankrupt schools, states, and the federal government. In contrast, if we don’t fund extensive education and prevention models specifically designed to reach the highest at risk demographics and campaigns to augment the recovery model and give people the vocabulary and tools of self management that are proven to be cost affective, we are in jeopardy of bankrupting our national moral fiber and insuring a further deterioration of the American Dream though crime, violence, and corporate tyranny.

We must not forget to effectively meet these goals, we must follow the recommendations of the experts and seek out effective and successful programs to model and integrate into existing programs. If none exist, we must create new ones. To make this happen we must make funding a priority and legislate change to ensure success of efforts to meet the challenges that face our culture. We must move beyond the barriers of cultural and social stigma that cause Americans to wince at the mere utterance of the words “mental illness.”