2008 Woodie Awards
Students remember victims
Virginia Tech honors those killed in 2007 massacre
Sue Lindsey
Issue date: 4/17/08 Section: News
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Thousands of mourners in maroon and orange who gathered at Virginia Tech Wednesday found comfort in remembrances of the 32 people slain by a student gunman one year ago in the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
Some stood with heads tearfully bowed, and others locked arms as memories of each of those killed echoed across the main campus lawn. During the afternoon, small, reflective gatherings were held around campus.
"The world was cheated - cheated out of the accomplishments that were sure to come from these extraordinary lives," Gov. Timothy M. Kaine told the crowd.
Afterward, about 50 people participated in a protest against lax gun laws on the lawn as groups of students played spontaneous games of Frisbee, soccer and tossed footballs nearby.
Trees were planted in front of an honors dormitory in memory of two members of the program who were slain. Members of several grieving families as well as students took turns shoveling dirt around a white oak for Austin Cloyd of Blacksburg and a sugar maple for Maxine Turner of Vienna, Virginia.
Renee Cloyd, wearing a maroon sweater and a small cross that was a Mother's Day gift from her daughter and son, greeted Austin's friends.
"I have a prayer shawl to give you," she told one. Cloyd said 12 or 13 shawls had been sent to the family as gifts.
Cloyd's husband, Bryan, said Austin had announced as a youngster after the family moved to Champaign, Ill., that she was claiming a tree near the new home for a private place to read. Soon afterward, a developer leveled the tree.
"I think a tree is a very fitting memorial," he said.
During the morning ceremony, mourners held back tears as a moment of silence was observed for those killed by Seung-Hui Cho, who took his own life in a classroom building as police closed in. But as music started playing, many sobbed and wept openly, overcome again by the magnitude of loss.
One grieving young woman fell to the ground and EMTs hurried to tend to her, eventually helping her off the field as she blinked back tears.
"We remain deeply and profoundly saddened by the events of that tragic day," Virginia Tech President Charles Steger told the crowd. "Indeed, all our lives were changed on that day.
"We have not found all that we have sought, but at every turn we have found each other."
After the ceremony, bells in the nearby administration building tolled 32 times as mourners approached the semicircle of memorial stones, each engraved with the name of a victim.
The gathering took place on the same field where a white candle lit at midnight began a day of grieving for the victims. Its flame was to be used to light candles for a vigil at dusk.
Peter Read, whose daughter Mary was killed, said the day was "bittersweet." He was among several family members of those injured and killed who attended a "lie-in" held on the Drillfield, one of 80 such demonstrations held nationwide Wednesday to protest what participants call the "gun show loophole."
Virginia is one of many states that does not require private sellers at gun shows to run background checks on customers, which opponents say creates an easy opportunity for criminals and the mentally ill to obtain firearms.
At the campus lie-in, protesters stretched out on the grass for three minutes, to symbolize the amount of time they say it takes to buy a gun in Virginia. Lori Haas, whose daughter Emily survived being shot, lay down and clasped hands with Suzanne Grimes, whose son Kevin Sterne was also injured in the shootings.
Some had opposed holding a lie-in on campus on a day dedicated to mourning the dead. But Read said it was done to honor those very victims, and to create awareness of a critical public safety issue.
"We see this as a profoundly respectful event that was done out of love," he said.
Read stood beside Colin Goddard, who was shot four times, and watched over the protesters on the ground. Among them was Joseph Samaha, whose daughter Reema was killed.
Some 20 people gathered in front of Norris Hall shortly after 9:30 a.m., the time one year ago that Cho killed 30 people in the building.
Dan Gonzalez of Chester said this was his first visit to Virginia Tech, and he came to honor the memory of Matthew Gwaltney. He and his family had been neighbors of the Gwaltneys for seven years and he knew Matthew as a child.
"It was a senseless killing," he said. "Matt was a great kid. He's the kind of kid you'd want to have as a son or a son-in-law."
Shane Hutton, a senior from Bristol, said he had wanted to go into Norris but it was closed.
"I find comfort in it," he said. "I just go in and think about the victims and the families."
Hutton, who had had victim Jamie Bishop as a professor, said he has visited the wing of locked classrooms a half-dozen times in the past year.
Some in this close-knit campus of 27,000 were just hoping to make it through what they knew would be a difficult day.
"It's just so emotional for everybody," Haas said before the commemoration. "The kids _ you're just so worried about them and think, 'Are they reliving those moments?'"
Some family members of victims entered War Memorial Chapel early Wednesday for a private service. Other family members of those killed said they couldn't bear to attend the official events and planned to grieve privately.
Associated Press writers Kristen Gelineau and Hank Kurz Jr. contributed to this report.
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