Campus outrage as Penn State students dress as Virginia Tech massacre victims
A Penn State student dressed as a Virginia Tech massacre victim at a Halloween party, with a fake bullet wound in her chest. The photo sparked outrage on both campuses.Campus outrage as Penn State students dress as Virginia Tech massacre victims
DAILY NEWS STAFF
Saturday, December 8th 2007, 3:20 PM
Two Penn State students have re-opened a wound after they costumed themselves for a Halloween party as victims of last spring's shooting massacre at Virginia Tech.
Photos of two Penn State students, partying in Virginia Tech paraphernalia marked with bullet holes and fake blood, made their way onto the social networking site Facebook.
The one photo accessible to the public came to the attention of WSLS-TV, a local station in Roanoke, Va., which broadcast a report late this week.
The station's interview with one of the Penn State students who wore the outfits drew the outraged attention of both campuses - especially because he defended the costumes, which WSLS-TV deemed too offensive to even show.
\"It's not that it was funny,\" the student said of the costumes. \"It's that we are notorious and infamous and very popular in the state college, so we have to do things that push the envelope just for shock value,\" he said.
He went on to imply that Virginia Tech students' public displays of grief less than a year after the massacre are at least partly for show.
\"This is a group of college students who now think it's trendy to be upset about their friends being killed,\" said the Penn student.
He said those who objected to the costumes were blowing things out of proportion.
\"The thing is, everybody's making a big stink about Virginia Tech. Virginia Tech was 32 deaths out of the 26 thousand that happen in America everyday,\" he said. \"That's the problem with college students. They all live in an ivory tower of privilege. They don't understand, when it all boils down to it, it's someone wearing a costume.\"
Penn State newspaper The Collegian reported that within hours of the interview broadcast, which did not show the student, a Virgina Tech Facebook group called \"People against this costume\" had more than 4000 members.
On Saturday the group, which is open only to Virginia Tech students, listed 3,335 members.
After the tragedy, in which gunman Seung Hui Cho killed 32 people before committing suicide, Penn State was quick to express support and solidarity with Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg.
The April 16 massacre was the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history, and the campus' scars are far from healed.
Once the photos came to light, Penn State was quick to condemn - and distance itself from - its students actions. \"We are appalled that these individuals would display this level of insensitivity, indifference, and lack of common decency and sense by dressing up in this manner,\" the school said in a statement obtained by WSLS-TV.
\"I certainly find it appalling, as most Penn Staters would find it appalling,\" University spokesman Bill Mahon told The Collegian. He believed the photos were taken \"off campus, in a private party.\"
The photos triggered a maelstrom of criticism at both schools. Students inteviewed by The Collegian expressed revulsion at the pictures.
Penn state freshman Cameron Wade said, \"Anyone associated with Virginia Tech should be angered by that. It's like joking about the Holocaust. College students drink a lot of alcohol, and I'm sure they thought it was funny at the time. But that's not a thing to joke about.\"
Ken Stanton, a Ph.D. student at Virgina Tech and administrator of the Facebook protest group, said there had been other Halloween costumes, YouTube videos and a video game that could be interpreted as making light of the tragedy.
He called on the community to rise above, writing \"While I and my fellow Hokies are insulted by these individual’s actions, I hope we can put things into perspective.\"
Other Virginia Tech students were not so forgiving.
In an interview with The Collegian, Va. Tech sophomore Caitlin Beckett she was too distraught to join the Facebook protest group. Her friend, 19-year-old Mary Read, died in the shootings.
\"I just didn't want to think about it - it's just kind of sickening\" she told the Penn State newspaper. \"You would think that people, after what happened, would have more respect than that.\"
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