BLACKSBURG, Va., March 29 (UPI) -- The U.S. Education Department said Tuesday it will fine Virginia Tech $55,000 for its handling of the 2007 campus shooting spree that left 33 people dead.
The Education Department said it levied the maximum fine allowed because the school didn't act quickly enough to alert people about the gunfire by student Seung-Hui Cho that ended in the worst mass killing in modern U.S. history.
Virginia Tech said its response was "well within the standards and practices in effect at that time," and would appeal, The News & Advance in Lynchburg reported.
The department affirmed its December decision that the school had violated the Clery Act by not issuing a campus-wide alert immediately after two students were found dead in a dormitory. Cho's killing spree didn't end until about 2 1/2 hours later when he shot himself, the newspaper said.
