Some students and family members affected by the Virginia Tech shootings plan to commemorate the tragedy's one-year anniversary by hosting a lie-in on the university's Drillfield April 16. Not all members of the Tech community, however, including some members of that university's Student Government Association, are supportive of the plan; some have called it unwelcome on a day for remembrance and healing.
Virginia Tech junior Ally St. Onge, the event's primary organizer, said she was inspired by similar events planned at the Supreme Court as well as at more than 70 other locations across the country.
"I wanted to do something because my friend's parents can't come yet," she said, adding that she was friends with Nicole White, one of the victims of the tragedy. "My friend's mom sent an e-mail saying they were going to the lie-in at the Supreme Court, and I wanted to do one here."
Although she said the majority of the university community has been supportive of the plan, St. Onge also said she has also faced some opposition.
"I know there's people around who don't like what I'm doing," she said, noting that many have apparently misinterpreted her reason for organizing the lie-in.
"They haven't gotten my point," she said. "They think that all I'm doing is using this day to protest, which I'm not, or they think that I hate guns, which I don't."
While the scheduled event is loosely affiliated with the Brady Campaign to Stop Gun Violence, as well as several other anti-violence organizations, St. Onge emphasized that the goal of this event is to honor those who were lost, not to protest.
The demonstration, though, according to Peter Hamm, communications director at the Brady Campaign, will consist of groups of 32 people -- to honor the 32 victims -- lying down for three minutes to symbolize the short time it takes for a person to purchase a gun.
"It's a very loose demonstration, pretty much anyone can do what they want," St. Onge said. "I've talked to a lot of family members and the ones I've talked to say 'That's fine and we support you.' I'm doing this kind of on behalf of the people."
One of those opposed to St. Onge's plan is SGA House of Representatives member Michael Stover, who said he and other SGA members wrote and passed a petition Tuesday night asking community members not to use the anniversary as a platform for protests.
"The day should be about remembrance and healing, not divisiveness," Stover said, noting that he and other members of SGA believe the timing is simply wrong for the planned display.
Larry Hincker, associate vice president for university relations, also said the scheduled protest faces an additional hurdle: Nobody has received a permit to hold the event.
"The problem is that nobody has contacted anybody," Hincker said, noting that his office is still trying to get in touch with "the girl who has been in contact with the Brady Campaign."
Hincker said he has had several discussions with Brady Campaign officials, noting he has explained to them that they must find somebody on campus willing to sponsor the event. Hincker added, though, that he anticipates being able to work something out in the near future so the victims of the tragedy may be respected and so protesters' right of assembly can be protected.
"The relations [between Tech and the Brady Campaign] have been cordial," Hincker said. "Hopefully, we can work something out, but it will not be at the same time" as other scheduled events on the Drillfield.
St. Onge said she does not want her event -- the time and date of which, she noted, has yet been finalized -- to disrupt the other scheduled events that day.
"It's very much a remembrance event," Hamm said. "They do want to be very sensitive to folks and they don't want to interfere with other remembrance events."
St. Onge added that she hopes all of the events both at Virginia Tech and across the country will appropriately honor those lost in the shootings.
"There's a lot going on," St. Onge said. "I know there's people around the country who have organized their own, and that means a lot; it meant lot to us when [the University of Virginia] helped us last year"
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