Slain Virginia Tech students remembered at graduation

By Chris Cermak May 12, 2007, 3:12 GMT

Washington - For students at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute in the secluded town of Blacksburg, Virginia, their year already came to an abrupt end last month when a student gunman killed 32 people in a shooting rampage on campus.

On Friday evening, the year formally concluded as nearly 5,000 students received their degrees, including the 27 students who died on April 16. Their names were read to the hushed crowd of 30,000 students, parents and faculty at the graduation ceremony in the football stadium on a warm May evening.

The audience heard messages of hope for the future - and condolences and praise for the community's resilience during the worst massacre by a single shooter in US history.

The guest speaker, retired US General John Abizaid who was head of the United States Central Command during the early years of the war in Iraq, said the school had shown great compassion and steadfastness under pressure of the 'harsh spotlight' of publicity, according to the university's webcast.

He compared the community's character to the 'tenacity and courage' of New Yorkers after the 2001 terrorist attacks, and the 'confidence and calmness' of the British after the 2005 London subway terrorist attacks.

'Adversity has a way of challenging us sooner or later,' he said. 'How we bear adversity's seemingly unsurmountable challenges marks how others will judge us and how we judge ourselves.'

University President Charles Steger, who weathered criticism for the school's failure to alert students before a second round of shooting in the horrific morning hours of the bloodbath, read a letter from US President George W Bush to the graduates.

'You have reminded people throughout the country and around the world that the true strength of America lies in the hearts and souls of its citizens,' he wrote.

The campus has been much quieter than usual over the last month. Most students had accepted an offer by the university to have only work evaluated that was handed in before the day of the shooting. More than half attended classes in the last month anyway, but many others stayed home.

Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old English student from South Korea, first opened fire in a dorm room just after 7 am, then two hours later barricaded himself in a classroom building across campus.

Cho had been ordered by a judge in December 2005 to undergo mental health treatment because of his suicidal tendencies. But nobody followed up, nor did the order prevent Cho from buying two handguns only a few months before his rampage.

Students on campus and residents of the tight-knit Blacksburg community around them have spent the last month focussed on coming together, and reflecting on the lives lost.

Tributes have poured in about Ryan Clark, a resident counsellor and exuberant member of the college band, who was shot in the dorm room where Cho first killed two students. Drew Demsmore, a 23-year- old student from Roanoke, Virginia, after the shooting called Clark 'the most important person I've ever met in my entire life.'

Other victims included Israeli professor Liviu Librescu, a Holocaust survivor who died after blocking the classroom door in Norris Hall while students jumped out of the windows to safety. The shooting stopped when Cho turned the gun on himself, and his parents did not receive an honorary degree.

Memorials and funerals took the place of celebratory graduation parties on campus in the final month.

'We are all in this together and we all have been there for eachother,' Adeel Khan, student body president told US television network CNN on Friday.

Instead of turning on authorities for failing to stop a massacre of unimaginable proportions, students have turned against the media that criticized their university's handling of the situation.

Less than a week after the attacks, the student body had gathered thousands of signatures in support of university president Charles Steger, and had petitioned university officials to have all media booted off campus.

'From this tragedy we have witnessed, the Virginia Tech people come together,' Steger said Friday in an afternoon ceremony for more than 1,000 graduate students receiving their degrees. 'We are here this afternoon to honour you.'

Support has flowed to Virginia Tech from around the country and world, filling the university's student centre with signed posters and gifts. Last week, Queen Elizabeth II of England commemorated the tragedy and the world's condolences in a speech to the Virginia state legislature.