What's Changed Since Va. . Tech Massacre?

Feb. 16, 2008 — -- It's been almost 10 months since the nation's worst school shooting rampage, when a crazed gunman killed 33 people at Virginia Tech.

That massacre prompted anguished debates about campus security, gun laws, and the privacy rights of the mentally ill, with lawmakers pushing various proposals, and campuses vowing to institute new policies.

Since last August, there have been several other school shootings, including Thursday's rampage by Steven Kazmierczak, who shot and killed five people before turning the gun on himself at Northern Illinois University.

So, what has been done? Or is there only so much that can be done to prevent violence on campuses without creating armed fortresses?

Hundreds of college campuses have taken steps to revamp their notification procedures, in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre, when students weren't informed about the shooter for hours, according to campus security experts.

"Many of them have made changes, from text messaging systems and e-mail systems, to more old-fashioned methods, such as the use of sirens and loudspeakers," said Carolyn Reinach Wolf, a lawyer and founder of Campus Behavioral Health Risk Consultants LLC.

The administration at NIU seems to have taken those steps, according to Wolf. Students and faculty learned about the shootings on their BlackBerries and voice mail within minutes. Administrators have also distributed booklets with color-coded tabs identifying various emergency situations, according to a school spokesperson.

Last December, when graffiti, referencing the Virginia Tech massacre, was found in a women's bathroom at NIU, the campus was shut down for a day.

"Whatever changes and modifications NIU made, worked very well yesterday," said Wolf. "In addition, it seemed like they were very well coordinated with off-campus law enforcement. What was missing at Virginia Tech was the timing, where it took them several hours to institute their safety policy."

Other changes have been slower to come: Although both the House and Senate passed amendments to the Cleary Act, which mandated that warnings should be sent out within 30 minutes, and recommended that schools need to adopt emergency notification procedures, they are being held up, due to squabbling between the White House and Congress.