You may recall the mass shooting at Virginia Tech in 2007. It was a scary day for all of us, particularly those involved in a university. Last week a jury found that the university was negligent for its failure to take adequate steps to warn students that the shooter was on a rampage on campus. The parents of two of the victims had sued for wrongful death of their children, claiming that the incident was foreseeable, and the university should have had warning systems in place.
We talked about this very case in LA346 when discussing the duty to rescue. It is an interesting application of foreseeability, because nothing of this scope had ever happened before at Virginia Tech, but there had been school shootings in other places. It is certainly an example of the jury taking a broad view of negligence law.
In terms of policy, this is a great example of tort law creating incentives. Every university in America should now have, or will soon have, a warning system for dangers on campus. We have one here at BU, as you may have noticed the few times we received 37 texts in a row from campus police. Of course BU is concerned about your safety, but after last week’s decision you can be certain that the threat of liability will incentivize the university to use the warning system liberally. Better safe than sorry.
8 Comments
James T. Curtis posted on March 19, 2012 at 11:37 pm
I think everyone can agree that this is a good thing. Just a few months ago another similar situation occurred at Virginia Tech and I had two really close friends I knew who were at school there. I was scared for them but I remember I heard from those students and on national news that Virginia Tech did a great job of handling this terrible situation compared to 2007. Nowadays, everyone has a cell phone and we can use this technology to make everyone safer. Warning text message systems keep all schools prepared in case the worst occurs.
Hope Blalock posted on March 20, 2012 at 10:16 pm
I’m very surprised that all universities don’t (or at least didn’t at the time of the first shooting in 2007) have systems similar to that of BU’s. I feel that BU is a pretty safe campus–partially because of our system (the warning emails and texts that they send out, how careful the school is to make sure that they have updated cell phone numbers, etc.)
That said, I don’t feel that it was completely necessary to use the emergency system to notify everyone via voice mail of the Peeping Tom incidents. While those incidents led to invasions of privacy and the students deserved to be notified, I’m not sure that it qualifies as an emergency and I feel that a simple, mass email to the student body would have gotten the point across just as well.
I only mention that particular incident because I feel that it falls under the category of “[using] the warning system liberally.” I agree that it’s better to be safe than sorry. However, my only concern that is if it gets to the point where universities use their systems too liberally, a “Little Boy Who Cried Wold” situation will ensue, and when the danger is real, some students will brush off the warning rather than taking it seriously.
Jinfeng Cai posted on March 26, 2012 at 8:43 pm
I totally agree with what James said. It is definitely a good thing to have an alarm system in order to make sure every students know what’s happeing. I was in Michigan State University (does not have this kind of alarm system) for two years, I personally think BU does a better job for sending out warning text messages tp keep all students prepared in case the worst occurs.
Rafael Grados posted on March 27, 2012 at 12:44 pm
I think BU’s safety procedures are great if used wisely. As professor Spooner mentioned if they are to take a “better safe than sorry approach” these warnings would increase and lose its value and ultimately hinder our feeling of liberty. I believe the current limit is fine and that further protective measures should be taken with much care and thought.
Randall Spence posted on March 27, 2012 at 9:52 pm
I think this is a little absurd to sue the school for wrongful death. As “foreseeable” as this tragedy may or may not have been, surely there are other entities that were more responsible, it’s just so happens that the school is the one with the most money. While I do personally believe that the American Education system is vastly overpriced, this isn’t the way to get money from it. The fact that schools will now become overly safe just to prevent lawsuits could have negative effects as well.
Yuchen Qin posted on March 28, 2012 at 9:59 pm
This reminds me of the email I received last weekend about a sexual harassment news took place near the campus. There was a similar situation last semester that a girl running by the riverside of Bay State Road at night was robbed (if I didn’t remember it wrongly). I believe BU does a good job in safety system, not only by sending out warning emails and texts, but also late night escort if you are afraid of going home alone. However, there are still some accidents happening around campus every now and then. It is never complete safe even for an urban university, so it is hard for Virginia Tech to be fully aware of the upcoming attack and stop the crime before it happened.
From the torts law perspective, the killed kids’ parents need to prove four more elements besides the injury in order to sue Virginia Tech for negligence: duty of due care to the students, breach, factual cause, and foreseeable harm. As for the argument of foreseeability, we do not know exactly if anything or anyone suspicious occurred around the whole campus before the attack. It is hard to know and prevent. If the foreseeability is established, then the university owed the students a duty of due care, and the safe department was supposed to take reasonable steps to prevent it.
Chih-Yi Kao (Jessica) posted on April 4, 2012 at 12:13 pm
It’s unfortunate that another mass shooting just took place in a small college in Oakland this Monday. I think it is hard for all the universities to have the warning system. Some small colleges like the one in this incident might be overlooking the importance of it. However, mass shooting on campus seems to be increasing over time, so every university should really pay attention to how to protect the safety of their students.
Stephanie Nowak posted on May 1, 2012 at 11:37 pm
Campus advisory systems are a necessary part of securing our safety. I think its difficult to accept that these tragedies had to take place in order for more sever measure to be taken. I think it is difficult for small schools to fund these types of investments. However, at the end of the day is there really a limit to ensuring the safety of all people? Especially when its known that systems like the BU Alert will protect people.