An independent review commission including former Department of Homeland Security head Tom Ridge will study aspects of the Virginia Tech shootings, and work on recommendations for prevention of future incidents, Gov. Kaine announced Thursday.
“I now am planning on the independent review panel to look at all the circumstances surrounding this horrible event, so that we can examine everything that happened and hopefully learn from it,” Kaine said in the Patrick Henry Building in Richmond.
Retired Virginia State Police Superintendent Col. Gerald Massengill, who led the state’s response to the Sept. 11 attacks and the 2002 sniper shootings, will lead the panel. He said the panel is a chance to examine and learn from a national event.
“This is a case study of a very tragic incident,” Massengill said. “We are not trying to second-guess any one with any decision or with any action that was taken. But at the same time, I want to be clear on this: Our purpose is to address those things that need to be on hold and strategies, policies, processes . that will make Virginia safer.”
Kaine said the commission will start researching the incidents soon, and anticipated the review will be completed before the next academic year.
“It is my hope that this commission will work promptly . and that recommendations from the commission will be available before fall, before school season starts again on college campuses around Virginia and around this nation,” Kaine said.
The commission will not have the authority to punish any parties that might have made mistakes, which led to or resulted from the shootings. However, the commission will be able to include such proposals in its final recommendations to the governor.
Kaine said he would take all recommendations seriously.
Other members of the board are Aradhana A. “Bela” Sood, medical director for the Virginia Treatment Center for Children at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center; Gordon Davies, former director for the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia; Roger L. Depue, former FBI officer; and Marcus L. Martin, assistant dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Virginia. The last two members, former circuit and district court judge Diane M. Strickland and Carroll Ann Ellis, director of the Fairfax County Police Department’s victim services division, were announced Saturday.
Kaine said the safety issues raised after the incidents should be carefully reviewed with a consideration that the shootings occurred on a college campus.
“It’s very important when we look at these security issues to recognize that they are not just generic issues,” Kaine said. “They are security issues in the context of a college campus. It’s a place where youngsters go to experience independence often for the first time in their life; where they’re learning, growing and expanding their horizons.”
The work of the panel, Kaine said, will be as open to the public as the work will allow.
“We want this process . to be as transparent as possible,” Kaine said. “We want people to have confidence in the findings and recommendations of this commission.”
Kaine said the degree of public involvement will be up to the panel, although there probably will be sensitive discussions with people related to the incidents.
No legislators will serve on the panel, but Kaine said there will be plenty of time before the 2008 General Assembly session, should the findings inspire legislative proposals.
Virginia Tech President Charles Steger and Jacob A. Lutz, rector of the Board of Visitors at Tech, requested the appointment of the panel from Kaine last week. The governor said the university should focus on recovering from the tragedy and completing the semester.
“They don’t need to have the additional burden of the after-review of these events distracting them from these core missions,” Kaine said.