BLACKSBURG, Va. — The US Department of Education said Tuesday it will fine Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University $55,000, the maximum amount allowable, for federal violations in how the school handled a shooting rampage in April 2007 that left 33 people dead.
The department found the school, also known as Virginia Tech, to have violated the Clery Act for not alerting the campus immediately after the first two students were killed, shortly after 7:15am on April 16, 2007.
Later in the morning, Seung-Hui Cho murdered 30 other students and faculty before killing himself.
According to reports, the letter says the campus was not alerted of the shooting until 9:26 am that morning. The letter also states that public schools in the Blacksburg area had already been locked down by 8:52 am.
The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act — known as the Clery Act — requires timely notification of crimes on campus.
Virginia Tech stands accused of two violations — that they did not issue a timely warning and that the school did not follow its own policies regarding handling a threat.
The Department of Education fined the school $27,500 for each violation.
The school has the right to appeal the fine. According to media reports, the school has said it will — a spokesperson told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that its actions on the morning of the shooting “were well within the standards and practices in effect at that time.”