April 17 (UPI) — In a somber ceremony Sunday, Virginia Tech marked 10 years since shootings by a mentally ill student killed 32 people on April 16, 2007.
At 9:43 a.m., Virginia Gov.Terry McAuliffe, Virginia Tech President Tim Sands and others paid their respects and placed wreaths at the April 16 Memorial on the Blacksburg campus.
Because of shooter Seung-Hui Cho’s background of mental illness, the tragedy forever changed how mental health issues have been treated, said Erin Sullivan, director of Student Counseling at Radford University in Virginia.
“People are more aware of mental illness, they are more inclined to step in and help people,” Sullivan said. “There’s been funding made available through legislation for different positions. Care teams that have created multi-disciplinary teams that actually they’re not as much reactive as they’re proactive.”
