Va. Tech Classes Resume Amid New Scare

BLACKSBURG, Va. -- Students attended the first normal day of classes at Virginia Tech since April's shooting massacre, but things weren't entirely normal: some were being treated for a gas leak, and the horror of the attack resurfaced in a new critical report.

Twenty students were sickened by carbon monoxide poisoning blamed on a faulty water heater valve at an off-campus apartment complex Sunday. The two most seriously injured were upgraded Monday to serious condition.

For Holly Sherman, of Springfield, whose daughter Leslie was killed last spring, the leak brought fresh terror: Her younger daughter, Lisa, had just moved into the complex.

Sherman said she was notified of the emergency Sunday by a Virginia Tech administrator, who could not tell her whether her daughter was among the victims. Lisa Sherman later called her mother to say she was OK.

"I felt like I was reliving a nightmare when I tried to call Lisa and she didn't answer the phone," Sherman wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

Also Monday, a victim advocacy group accused Virginia Tech of violating federal law by waiting more than two hours after the shooting of two students to warn staff and students of the presence of a gunman who went on to shoot 30 others and himself.

"They could've issued a warning within 10 minutes in the morning," she said Catherine Bath, executive director of the advocacy group Security On Campus.

Mark Owczarski, a Tech spokesman, said he hadn't seen a 34-page complaint the group filed with the U.S. Department of Education. "At this point we're just kind of focused in on the first day of school," he said.

Relatives of the victims also learned Monday that a panel appointed by Virginia's governor to study the mass shootings asked for more time to complete its report, which originally was scheduled to be made public this week.

The eight-person panel met for nearly 11 hours in closed session Monday and is scheduled to meet again Friday to continue its discussions.

Gov. Timothy Kaine granted the extension. Spokesman Kevin Hall said that if the panel needs additional time to produce a "quality report, they've got it."

Despite the delay, panel members still plan to brief families of victims of the shootings on the report's contents Tuesday.

Virginia Tech officials are looking to the report for guidance on how colleges and universities can better handle students like gunman Seung-Hui Cho. The university is conducting its own review, and state police are leading the criminal investigation.

Norris Hall, where Cho killed all but his first two victims, was quiet Monday. A single vase of maroon and orange flowers sat outside the front entrance, and a security guard kept people from entering.

No classes will be held again in Norris, university officials have said. Some engineering classes will be spread across campus.

Derek O'Dell, one of 23 people who survived Cho's gunshots, said he felt anxiety and excitement as he rushed across campus to his first class of the day, German.

"I'm looking forward to it," he said. "It's good seeing everybody and good seeing a lot of the survivors."

Tech enrolled a record freshman class of 5,200 for the fall, but officials said they wouldn't know for a couple of weeks exactly how many of the 26,000 students returned.

Students zipped along on skateboards and greeted each other with hugs and grins Monday, their campus more vibrant than it was in the somber days after the April 16 shooting, when many students left early for home.

"The people here are amazing," freshman Ashton Miller of Salem said. "Everyone's so friendly."

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On the Net:

Tech: http://www.vt.edu

Security on Campus: http://www.securityoncampus.org