After massacre, councilman calls
for probe of campus safety

Three days after last week’s deadly shootings at Virginia Tech University, City Councilman Jack Kelly introduced a resolution authorizing the Committee on Public Safety to hold public hearings to investigate the safety of college campuses.
The resolution also remembered, memorialized, honored and mourned the 32 people shot to death by a student on the morning of April 16. Twenty-nine others survived gunshot wounds in the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history.
Council members and others in the chamber stood in remembrance of the victims during the body’s April 19 meeting.
"I have, as I am sure my colleagues have, received numerous phone calls from parents who have children in colleges and universities in Philadelphia. They have a lot of questions and concerns as to their children’s safety," said Kelly (R-at large).
"As a proud parent who had children in college, I understand their concern. Although I am confident that universities in Philadelphia are working tirelessly to ease and address the concerns of students, parents and faculty, I want to, in a public, collaborative forum, investigate how safe our college campuses are."
There are more than 107,000 college and university students in Philadelphia.
One idea Kelly likes is technology that would allow campus safety officials to communicate directly with students, and vice versa, via text messages on their cellular phones. ••