Lessons from the response to the Virginia Tech shootings.

Student reactions to the shootings at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University: Does sharing grief and support over the internet affect recovery?

After the shootings at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University, many students gravitated to the Internet for support. Despite the fact that the Internet plays a major role in how people live their lives in contemporary society, little is known about how people use the Internet in times of tragedy and whether this use affects well-being. To address these issues, the current study assessed...

Racial and mental illness stereotypes and discrimination: an identity-based analysis of the Virginia Tech and Columbine shootings.

The Virginia Tech and Columbine High shootings are 2 of the deadliest school massacres in the United States. The present study investigates in a nationally representative sample how White Americans' causal attributions of these shooting moderate their attitudes toward the shooter's race. White Americans shown a vignette based on the Virginia Tech shooting were more likely to espouse negative be...

Cell Phone Use with Social Ties During Crises: The Case of the Virginia Tech Tragedy

Many proposed technological solutions to emergency response during disasters involve the use of cellular telephone technology. However, cell phone networks quickly become saturated during and/or immediately after a disaster and remain saturated for critical periods. In this study, we investigated cell phone use by Virginia Tech students, faculty and staff during the shootings on April 16, 2007 ...

Safer schools in an age of mass violence: back to the basics of public health.

Schools in the US are by and large safe environments where millions of our children are secure and thrive. Outbreaks of fatal violence like the recent shootings at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) are, fortunately, rare. In fact, the odds of a student losing his or her life to homicide are 50 times more likely while off school grounds. Because of the extraordi...

The Ottoman Response to the Western Storm: Lessons for Neo-Ottomanism in Turkey