Classes to resume Monday

From Staff and Wire Reports / WSLS NewsChannel 10
Published: April 22, 2007

BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) - Students are returning to campus at Virginia Tech, where classes resume tomorrow for the first time since last week's shooting rampage.

The campus is still full of reminders of the violence. There's still yellow crime-scene tape around Norris Hall, where Seung-Hui Cho killed 30 students and faculty members before taking his own life. He'd killed two others earlier at a dorm.

Some people outside the building today were taking pictures, while others stood with heads bowed, gazing solemnly at the classroom building. It's closed for the remainder of the semester.

Elsewhere on campus, students carrying laundry and suitcases headed back to their dorms.

A sophomore who sat on the Drillfield at the center of campus today says she had left Tuesday for her home in Maryland, and came back yesterday. Ashleigh Shifflett says she and her sister, a 2005 graduate, started crying when they saw the campus again. But she says, "I felt like I needed to be here."

Sunday the Virginia Tech administration sent an e-mail to the student body.  The e-mail offered support to students in the form of mental health professionals and volunteers.

The full text of the e-mail follows:

Sunday, April 22, 2007

To the Virginia Tech Community:

As classes resume on Monday, some members of our community wearing either purple or yellow arm bands, as well as some with badges saying "May I help-" These people will on hand to help.

Those with PURPLE arm bands are mental health professionals who are here to provide support to any student, faculty, or staff member may need it as we continue on the challenging road to healing and recovery. Anyone who desires their assistance should feel free to stop and speak with them.

Those with YELLOW arm bands and "May I help-" badges are faculty, staff, and student volunteers who will be present in classroom buildings on Monday and Tuesday to assist members of the community in whatever way is needed. These volunteers will carry information about support services available both on and off campus, as well as important contact numbers.

Please contact these people with questions or concerns you may have.

We are Virginia Tech. We will prevail.