Familes of more than a dozen of the victims of the V-Tech shooting want representation on the investigative panel to see that the university’s reponsibility for the tragedy is not covered up. Thomas Fadoul, a Vienna attorney, is trying to get it for them, but Gerald Massengil (involved in the 9-11 Pentagon hit investigation) – who heads the panel – doesn’t want the families to “control” the direction of the investigation, he says. Apparently, discussion between the sides got acrimonious last week.

Massengill is following the official line in minimizing the Virginia states’ failure by showing more interest in the privacy issue and the release of the psychiatric records. Well, that’s all very well, and we’d like to see the records too. But, are they going to have the names of the drugs Cho was taking on them? And where will that lead?

But, to my mind, accepting that the underlying issue is only the privacy law that (supposedly) kept the records out of reach of V-Tech is simply a red herring. As I wrote earlier, the school could have followed up on Cho, even with the existing laws. The privacy law is not what caused the tragedy, however much they spin it.

So nice try, Mr. Massengill, but those families better have some one representing their interests. Obviously, the rest of the V-Tech panel seems to be representing the interests of the state of Virginia. And we know what those are…

“Instead of focusing on Virginia Tech’s response to the shooting and questions such as why the campus was not closed after the initial reports of gunfire, the family members said they fear the panel is bogged down by what they consider to be extraneous issues.”

More at the Washington Post here