WASHINGTON (AP) — An Education Department official is telling an administrative hearing that Virginia Tech had an obligation to let the community know about shootings on campus so people could take precautions.
Deputy assistant education secretary David Bergeron testified before an administrative judge considering the university’s appeal of a $55,000 fine levied after a 2007 shooting rampage that left 33 dead, including the shooter.
Representing the university, Peter Messitt, senior assistant attorney general for Virginia, says police responding to the initial shootings in a dormitory believed the victims were “targeted for a reason” and that the shooter had left campus.
Virginia Tech was fined under the Clery Act, a law that requires timely notification of security threats on a college campus. Family members of the dead and injured also were expected to testify.
