Virginia Tech Shooting: Students Remember April 16 2007

by Amy Judd | April 16, 2010 at 07:50 am

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Three Years Since the Virginia Tech Shooting, Students Mark the Day With Memorials and Dedications

32 people died in the Virginia Tech massacre on April 16 2007, and it is still known as the worst massacre in US history by a lone gunman.

Virginia Tech Massacre: Three-Year Anniversary

The school marks the day every year in the best way they can, by holding a ceremony in the evening where everyone can attend and mark the events of that April day three years ago in their own private way. As it has been three years since the shooting, the students who were freshman then are close to graduating now, so this year has a special meaning for them.

Those who are graduating are wondering what will happen to the memory of the Virginia Tech shooting when they leave and are facing their graduation day with feelings of survivor's guilt and nostalgia according to the Washington Post.

One student, Molly Pearl was meant to be in French class the morning of April 16 2007 where 11 students were shot including her teacher, but she overslept and did not make it on time. That saved her life.

"People in my class tried to jump out of windows," said Pearl, 21, who is from Fairfax. "What would I have done? I would have stood there, frozen. If I had gone to class I would have been shot. I probably would have been killed."

All classes on April 16 are canceled at Virginia Tech as it is an entire Day of Remembrance for the students and faculty. The university has decided however that they will resume classes on April 16 in 2012, which would be the fifth anniversary of the shooting.

"I think the gravity of April 16 will be lifted a little bit after our class goes through," said Kelsey Steiner, 21, a senior psychology major who shared a class during her freshman year with Nicole White, who was killed in the German class. "To have been here and felt the emotions and to have experienced the fear, the pain, the grief, everything, is something I don't think another class will know."