To: Blair Parents
From: The Headmaster
Date: April 19, 2007

As you know, I occasionally use e-mail to talk about things at School, though generally we use regular publications and the web site. However, I appreciate that the events of this past week make all of us who have children in educational settings, particularly residential settings, concerned and unsettled. So today I am writing to keep you abreast of our discussions at the community, faculty, and administrative level about the various issues raised by the tragedy in Blacksburg.

On Monday itself, as the scope of the tragedy became clear, faculty members, the alumni office, and I began to reach out to the Blair alumni and their families to ascertain the safety of our students who are presently enrolled in Virginia Tech. To the best of our knowledge, all our alumni are safe and accounted for, though some are understandably quite shaken by the event and knew victims of the assault.

Further along in this e-mail, I shall discuss the ongoing planning we have been and continue to do with regard to emergency planning at Blair--a standing committee has long been at work on this issue, most recently methodically going through a pandemic crisis plan in response to the concerns about the avian flu.

However, I did want to tell you that today at our regular Chapel service, I spoke to the community about the Virginia Tech situation. Waiting until today made sense because we know much more now than on Monday or even Tuesday, and I believe talking today allowed me to put the tragedy in some context for our students to grasp the fundamental issues.

I began by firmly declaring that it is now clear that the perpetrator of this crime was mentally ill, paranoid, previously hospitalized and for some time perceived as frightening and hostile by members of the Virginia Tech community. In invoking the Columbine killers and Christ in his rant, the young man clearly revealed that it was only coincidental that his race was Asian, and that it played no fundamental role in his distorted thinking or terrible actions (not that such an issue coming from someone insane would have mattered in any case). I want to make sure that no immature or thoughtless member of the student body slips into bigoted thinking or hurtful behavior toward our students of Asian nationality or descent, behavior which I know would be shameful to this thoughtless student later in life.

In addition, I sought to reassure all our Asian students and faculty that this was a tragic case of unchecked insanity--and though the enormity of the crime may appear complex, the cause of this act is insanity--that simple and that sorrowful. Further, I emphasized that Blair has had a long history of educating young men and more recently women of Asian background--whether international or American students--and we have had and have now Asian Trustees and faculty members. In short, this young man's racial/cultural heritage is not an issue. I hope and believe I was clearly heard and understood.

Following this, we had a silent prayer for the victims, their families, the Virginia Tech community, and those from Blair who are there.

It is a reasonable question to ask whether or not this could happen at Blair and/or how Blair might prevent a student from harming the community, even in a much less tragic way than occurred this week in Blacksburg. In answering this difficult question, I would not be foolish enough to be categorical (i.e. "a threatening incident could never happen"), but I would say that at Blair we take great pains to know, discuss, evaluate, and intervene in our students' lives as a matter of both philosophy and daily practice. Certainly we immediately and decisively respond to any student whose behavior, statements, or impact raises questions of harm to self or others, even if that perception ultimately proves false.

As you might imagine, in such circumstances, I would much rather be guilty of over-reacting than not reacting firmly or quickly enough. Indeed, we have in the past reacted and have required students to leave the community to assure their parents, us, and the appropriate professionals that the student is safe to be here. However, I want to emphasize that in these cases the issue has always been about a student's safety towards self-harm, not harming others. Weapons, etc., have not been part of any situation I have encountered.

A related question is how safe is the Blair campus generally? Granted that we are in a rural area, up on a hill with a complex little road system often confusing to strangers, Blair still has five public access routes, a golf course open to the public, and a long-standing reputation of being welcoming to townspeople who walk, stroll babies, ride bikes, and otherwise occasionally come on campus. We do employ unarmed, twenty-four hour security and advise faculty to welcome (or confront) any stranger and seek help if any stranger appears suspicious in any way, but I would say that Blair is no more or less safe than any boarding school, college or university in this regard. Just as you can at Princeton, Lawrenceville or Peddie, you can walk or drive on the campus without having an automatic security check.

All that said, in the months ahead our administrative group is exploring such options as a campus-wide alarm/siren system, swipe card/keys on all dormitories, and evacuation plans in the event of a situation which requires it. If we put in some of these systems, I anticipate we shall far more likely use an emergency response in encountering a weather-related, accident-related, or other such emergency rather than needing it for anything violent or terror-related. Certainly I know that such a fear and reality--however remote or unlikely--exists in our contemporary world, and I understand and we take seriously the responsibility of being as prepared as possible for any threat to the safety and security of the Blair community.

Forgive the unusual length of this communication, but I hope you have some of your important questions answered. Feel free to contact me or the School should you want more clarification or discussion.

Faithfully,

Chan

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