Virginia Tech Families Want a 9/11 Payout

[Trainwreck2100]

By Tim Craig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 18, 2007; B01

RICHMOND, July 17 The families of some of the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre are drawing up plans to ask the state to create a multimillion-dollar fund that would compensate them for their losses and pay for new programs to bolster campus safety across the nation.

Thomas J. Fadoul Jr., a Vienna lawyer who says he represents the relatives of 22 slain students, said the fund should be modeled after the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, which Congress created in 2001 to distribute more than $7 billion to victims of the terrorist attacks and their relatives.

Fadoul said he is not sure how large the Virginia Tech fund would need to be. But he said the relatives of the 32 slain students and faculty members are entitled to "at least what the 9/11 people got."

The families of those killed Sept. 11, 2001, collected awards averaging $2 million. Payouts for the injured averaged almost $400,000.

Like the recipients of the Sept. 11 funds, the relatives of the Virginia Tech victims probably would give up their right to sue before they could receive a direct payment.

"We think enough money can be raised, much like the 9/11 fund, where the families can be properly taken care of, to the extent they have requirements for health, mental and physical and other financial needs, and there are a lot of them," Fadoul said.

The proposal could be finalized by the relatives as early as Wednesday, but Fadoul said the families still need to reach consensus. He cautioned that their requests could change.

On Monday, the administrator of the $7 million Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund, which Virginia Tech established to receive donations in the days after the April 16 shootings, drew up recommendations for direct payments to the victims.

Kenneth R. Feinberg, who administered the Sept. 11 fund, said he will recommend that the families of those killed at Virginia Tech receive $150,000, and the injured get $25,000 to $75,000.

Feinberg said he would also recommend that anyone who was in Norris Hall, where most of the shootings occurred, receive one year of free tuition or $8,000.

But Fadoul said the families deserve far more money. The relatives also want to create a fund large enough to develop innovative ways to increase campus safety nationwide. They are not sure what form the programs would take.

Fadoul said he and his clients have been discussing their proposal and held a meeting Tuesday night in Charlottesville. He said they could unveil it as early as Wednesday while attending the fourth meeting of the Virginia Tech Review Panel, which is being held at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

Fadoul said the relatives would like Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) and the General Assembly to establish the fund, as Congress created the Sept. 11 fund.

If the state fails to act, the families may go to the federal government, some of the relatives said Tuesday night.

Kaine, through a spokesman, declined to comment.

Fadoul suggested that the money in the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund, which the relatives have criticized for being too slow to respond to their needs, be rolled into a new account.

But Feinberg said it is unlikely that the fund, which is to disburse all its money by Nov. 1, could merge with another one.

"If the commonwealth of Virginia wanted to create its own 9/ 11 type fund, that would require a waiver of any right to sue, that is entirely within the province of the commonwealth of Virginia," Feinberg said.
Fadoul said the money for the fund could come from taxpayer contributions and from a fundraising campaign for which the relatives would make personal appeals for donations. It was unclear Tuesday night whether such a fund would be legal, state officials said.
Fadoul argued that the creation of such a fund would keep the state and Virginia Tech from having to face the possibility of lawsuits.
"Litigation is an option, but litigation is where everybody loses," Fadoul said.

A spokesman for the Virginia attorney general's office, which would represent the state and Virginia Tech in any lawsuit, declined to comment.

Congress created the Sept. 11 fund in part to protect the struggling airline industry and government agencies from the threat of lawsuits, said Lloyd Dixon, a senior economist at the Rand Corp.
Ninety-seven percent of the families of attack victims chose the payouts, but at least 80 filed lawsuits.

Dixon said such funds can be beneficial to governments and victims.
"The funds get payments to the victims more quickly than would have happened through the tort system and avoid a lot of legal and other transaction costs," said Dixon, who conducted a study of the compensation received by the victims of Sept. 11.

The sense of entitlement in this country is pretty bad

 

[Yurka]

Are you ****ing kidding me?

 

[Untilteld]

someone sum it up for me, that's much too long haha.

 

[xwolverine2]

i didnt read most of it... but from what i read..they sound pretty greedy...

 

[Speedball]

The sense of entitlement in this country is pretty bad

Do you know someone who died in the massacre?
No, I bet you don't.
I do.
They deserve the money, because the school failed to notice the things that lead up to that day and failed to protect the students and react appropriately.

 

[Spider-Fett]

And money fills the loss of a loved one how?

 

[LouFerignoDemon]

It depends HOW it affected the family. Did it impact their livelihood that they can no longer maintain their original lifestyles?

If not, then emotional damage probably doesn't deserve that sort of cash.

Losing a loved one is daunting, but the school couldn't do TOO much to prevent it.

 

[Speedball]

And money fills the loss of a loved one how?

You're right, money will never replace what they have lost. But what else in this world matters almost as much as a life?

 

[Dew k. Mosi]

yeah, I find this all disgusting

 

[Speedball]

It depends HOW it affected the family. Did it impact their livelihood that they can no longer maintain their original lifestyles?

If not, then emotional damage probably doesn't deserve that sort of cash.

Losing a loved one is daunting, but the school couldn't do TOO much to prevent it.

They could have put the school on full alert after the first shootings.

 

[Trainwreck2100]

Do you know someone who died in the massacre?
No, I bet you don't.
I do.
They deserve the money, because the school failed to notice the things that lead up to that day and failed to protect the students and react appropriately.

That may be true, but they want the money from the state, plus there is already $6 million out there from private donations that will be divied up

Kenneth R. Feinberg, who administered the Sept. 11 fund, said he will recommend that the families of those killed at Virginia Tech receive $150,000, and the injured get $25,000 to $75,000.

Feinberg said he would also recommend that anyone who was in Norris Hall, where most of the shootings occurred, receive one year of free tuition or $8,000.

 

[unstoppable]

You're right, money will never replace what they have lost. But what else in this world matters almost as much as a life?

nothing comes close to life

money is the root of all evil

 

[Spider-Fett]

You're right, money will never replace what they have lost. But what else in this world matters almost as much as a life?

Apparently to these people. Money.

Which means they are greedy, just like someone else stated.

 

[Spider-Fett]

They could have put the school on full alert after the first shootings.

And Lincoln could have ducked.

Doesn't change the fact that it didn't happen. Hindsight is 20/20

 

[Untilteld]

well that's lame.

 

[Speedball]

nothing comes close to life

money is the root of all evil

But in this world, that's the way it is.
I believe money is the route of evil too, but I still earn it, because it's the only way to survive.

 

[GoldenAgeHero]

Do you know someone who died in the massacre?
No, I bet you don't.
I do.
They deserve the money, because the school failed to notice the things that lead up to that day and failed to protect the students and react appropriately.

how do they deserve the money? how does one predict these actions? please

 

[MaskedManJRK]

While it is a tragedy what happened at Virginia Tech, I do think something as huge as 9/11 is pushing it.

I mean, without sounding to callous, 23 lives taken is no where near as bad as 3,000.

Should they have their own fund? Sure. But asking that much is kinda pushing it.

 

[Speedball]

And Lincoln could have ducked.

Doesn't change the fact that it didn't happen. Hindsight is 20/20

The first shootings took place around 7:00 AM.
The first warning that the students got was at 9:26.
Cho had time to go to mail a letter, and cross a large distance to get to the next building. The next shots were fired around 9:40-ish
Why didn't the whole school just go into lockdown after the first murders?
It's a shame that it had to come to this to realize that the security of the campus and many other school campuses sucked.

 

[unstoppable]

The first shootings took place around 7:00 AM.
The first warning that the students got was at 9:26.
Cho had time to go to mail a letter, and cross a large distance to get to the next building. The next shots were fired around 9:40-ish
Why didn't the whole school just go into lockdown after the first murders?
It's a shame that it had to come to this to realize that the security of the campus and many other school campuses sucked.

security should've been fired

 

[StorminNorman]

Times like this I absolutely hate American culture

 

[Spider-Fett]

The first shootings took place around 7:00 AM.
The first warning that the students got was at 9:26.
Cho had time to go to mail a letter, and cross a large distance to get to the next building. The next shots were fired around 9:40-ish
Why didn't the whole school just go into lockdown after the first murders?
It's a shame that it had to come to this to realize that the security of the campus and many other school campuses sucked.

For the same reason that D.C. doesn't go into lockdown whenever there is a gang fight. Or a school doesn't shut down whenever someone unknown parks in the parking lot.

You believe that it is an isolated incident. Nobody thinks that some kid is going to go on a killing spree.

If you locked the school down everytime something violent happened kids would never get anything accomplished because the school would be shut down 4 times a week.

It reminds me of my high school. When I went there they never shut the place down for anything weather related unless there was like a foot of snow on the ground. Then one day a school bus slides on some black ice while taking kids home and wrecks. Nobody was injured but suddenly all the parents were all up in arms about the school not being closed.

So as usual they overreacted (which is what most governments do) and then suddenly the school was closed for tropical storm warnings. If it snowed an inch the school was closed no matter how clean the roads were. The following school year the kids had so many bad weather days off that they ended up staying an extra week at the end of the school year. Which of course, put the parents all up in arms.

You want to live life? You take risks, each one of us takes them everyday. If you want to worry so much for your safety that you lock yourself up in a vault with a loaded pistol then that's on you. But you can't have your cake and eat it too.

 

[Speedball]

For the same reason that D.C. doesn't go into lockdown whenever there is a gang fight. Or a school doesn't shut down whenever someone unknown parks in the parking lot.

You believe that it is an isolated incident. Nobody thinks that some kid is going to go on a killing spree.

If you locked the school down everytime something violent happened kids would never get anything accomplished because the school would be shut down 4 times a week.

It reminds me of my high school. When I went there they never shut the place down for anything weather related unless there was like a foot of snow on the ground. Then one day a school bus slides on some black ice while taking kids home and wrecks. Nobody was injured but suddenly all the parents were all up in arms about the school not being closed.

So as usual they overreacted (which is what most governments do) and then suddenly the school was closed for tropical storm warnings. If it snowed an inch the school was closed no matter how clean the roads were. The following school year the kids had so many bad weather days off that they ended up staying an extra week at the end of the school year. Which of course, put the parents all up in arms.

You want to live life? You take risks, each one of us takes them everyday. If you want to worry so much for your safety that you lock yourself up in a vault with a loaded pistol then that's on you. But you can't have your cake and eat it too.

The murder was on campus, and the killer was on the loose. I think that's reason enough to close down a campus.

 

[Jerry!]

yeah, I find this all disgusting

Apparently to these people. Money.

Which means they are greedy, just like someone else stated.

It depends HOW it affected the family. Did it impact their livelihood that they can no longer maintain their original lifestyles?

If not, then emotional damage probably doesn't deserve that sort of cash.

Losing a loved one is daunting, but the school couldn't do TOO much to prevent it.

And money fills the loss of a loved one how?

People seem to be glossing over the fact that the families want to also raise funds for the development of campus security across the nation. But no, everyone skips over that and thinks they just want to make quick easy money on this. Thats BS. Who the **** are we to judge how this tragedy affected their lives? And what do you expect them to be compensated with? A "Sorry" letter? What happened was inexcusable along with the scale of it. It shouldn't have happened to the degree it did.

I also love how the title of thread was put. Take something out of context and than exaggerate on it. You people disgust me.

 

[Speedball]

People seem to be glossing over the fact that the families want to also raise funds for the development of campus security across the nation. But no, everyone skips over that and thinks they just want to make quick easy money on this. Thats bull****. Who the **** are we to judge how this tragedy affected their lives? And what do you expect them to be compensated with? A "Sorry" letter? What happened was inexcusable along with the scale of it. It shouldn't have happened to the degree it did.

You people disgust me.

Thank you.
And you may want to edit your post. You said s***