WeSupportVT.com
Email: press at wesupportvt dot com
Website: http://www.wesupportvt.com/
PETITION SUPPORTING DR. CHARLES W. STEGER AND WENDELL FLINCHUM EXCEEDS 20,000 ONLINE SIGNATURES.
Organizers plan to deliver petition to the governor's office and to the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors by the end of the week.
Monday, 23 April 2007
In the hours immediately following the Virginia Tech shootings, members of major media outlets began harshly criticizing decisions made and actions taken by Dr. Charles W. Steger, President of Virginia Tech; Wendell Flinchum, Chief of the Virginia Tech Police Department; the Virginia Tech administration; and members of law enforcement on the scene. Virginia Tech students, alumni, faculty, and staff, as well as members of the general public, were angered by this criticism, prompting creation of a petition published on www.WeSupportVT.com on Thursday, 19 April 2007, at approximately 10:00 PM EDT.
The goal of the petition is to rally support for President Steger and Chief Flinchum. Within 11 hours, over 2300 people had signed the petition. By 11:59 PM EDT on Friday, April 19th, 15,000 people signed the petition.
On Sunday, 22 April 2007, the number of signatures surpassed 20,000.
"The blood of the victims was still wet, very few facts had been released, and yet members of the media were quick to lay blame on the leadership of Virginia Tech," said Vincent Rivellino, a Virginia Tech alumnus and co-creator of the website and petition when asked about the rationale behind the website.
"If you attack the president, you attack the entire school," said Jesse Johnson, one of the co-creators of the website and a Christiansburg resident who will be transferring to Tech from New River Community College next year. "They did what they could with the information they had."
Website creators have been humbled by the level of support the website has received. At the time of this writing, they plan to deliver the petition and the list of its signatories to the office of Timothy M. Kaine, Governor of Virginia, and to the Board of Visitors of Virginia Tech on Friday, 27 April 2007.
"We will stop accepting signatures on Thursday, April 26th, at a time yet to be determined," said Kevin Jones, Virginia Tech alumnus and co-creator.
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If you require more information please email the organizers at press at wesupportvt dot com, and they will do what they can to answer your questions.
