North County graduate safe but shaken at V-Tech

By: WILLIAM FINN BENNETT - Staff Writer | Tuesday, April 17, 2007 12:07 AM PDT ∞

NORTH COUNTY ---- For Santa Fe Christian School graduate Sarah Munoz of Encinitas, the universe shifted Monday when a gunman shot and killed 32 of her Virginia Tech classmates.

"Things are never going to be the same," Munoz said Monday during a telephone interview from her apartment near the university. "You think you are safe, but you are never really safe.

"There is a whole sense of security that is gone now."

The 20-year-old was on campus when she learned of the early-morning shootings but returned to her apartment in the city of Blacksburg, Va., home to the 26,000-student university.

Munoz is in the second year of a volleyball scholarship. About the time of the first shootings, she was at a gym across the street from the dormitory where the first two killings occurred. She left with a friend at one point to get a cup of coffee.

"When I came back, I saw all these cop cars lined up," she said.

Two hours after the dormitory shooting was reported, dozens of other students were killed and wounded in a different area of the 2,600-acre campus. The school is known for its engineering curriculum and a strong football program.

She immediately called her mother, Lindy Munoz of Encinitas, to let her know that she was all right. Then she began worrying about her teammates, the 2005 high school graduate said.

"It's just scary the thought that we might know somebody," she said.

She later learned all were OK.

As she spoke, the blare of a television newscast could be heard in the background.

"My heart goes out to the families," she said.

It's times like these that her Christian faith serves as a support, she added.

"It's something to hold onto," she said.

Her mother said that her first reaction was relief and thankfulness that she got the news of the shootings directly from her daughter. Now Lindy Munoz' concerns are for the families of those who died.

"What their parents must be going through, those parents who are getting the those phone calls that it's their kid ---- I am just grieving for them," she said.

Robert Stavros, a Poway resident and former Virginia Tech faculty member, said he is worried about former colleagues and co-workers at the school whose athletic teams are known as the Hokies.

"It's like a ton of bricks," said Stavros, who graduated from Virginia Tech in the mid-1980s. "I don't know where to go, what to say. I don't know how the universe is ever going to be the way it was."

Stavros said this is the kind of tragedy that he would expect at a big city university, "not an idyllic campus in farming country in the middle of the Blue Ridge Mountains."

Stavros used to work in the engineering building where the second outbreak of shootings occurred.

Likewise, Sarah Munoz has classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the same building.

"I never want to step foot in that building again," she said. "I just can't wait for the school year to end." Virginia Tech's school year ends in mid-May.

Santa Fe Christian's Diane Pascua was Munoz' high school volleyball coach for four years. As soon as she heard about the shootings, she called Munoz.

"All I wanted was to hear her voice," she said.

One of Munoz' older sisters, Rachel, is a student at the University of Miami and was planning to take a one-year internship in Virginia Tech's athletic department, her mother said.

After talking with her, Lindy Munoz said that plan is now uncertain.

"Rachel said, 'Now, I'm afraid to go there,' " she said.

She said she wasn't surprised that the nation's worst mass shooting would happen on a university campus in a small town nestled in the mountains, she said.

"It can happen anywhere," she said. "Maybe there are no small towns anymore."

Contact staff writer William Finn Bennett at (760) 740-5426 or wbennett@nctimes.com.

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Paul G. wrote on Apr 17, 2007 7:31 AM: I seem to recall a recent debate in the North County Times about whether local campus cops should even carry guns. Who were those educated idiots opposing armed campus police ? And what do liberal campus administrators look for in a campus police department ? Remember the bruhaha when a campus cop tasered a student ? You can't live in a dangerous world and be protected by an unarmed Peace Corps.

Wrong Place Wrong Time wrote on Apr 17, 2007 9:53 AM:Virginia Tech is a premiere institution of learning and it's horrid that they can no longer focus on that. Their laurels are tarnished because one crazed 'national resident' snapped and chose VTECH as his arena. This horrific disaster should NOT tarnish VTECH; they had nothing to do with enticing the morbidity to occur at their institution. Fingers will point though, at the administration, their lack of a proper warning system (what is that anyway?), their no locks on the doors, etc. Instead of asking the VTECH president or others to resign (WHAT FOR?), look instead at the entire country's vulnerability. Everywhere, not just schools. Are you safe eating in your favorite restaurant where the chef just found out his wife is leaving him? We need a system of support for those whose instability is not being addressed and treated. Our health care system is so archaic (and expensive) that 'time bomb' people are walking around everywhere. Whether it genetic, environmental or situational disorders, these unfortunate individuals lack coping mechanisms to prevent their heinous actions. Wish that those around them would not ignore 'signs' and symptoms of a time bomb. We grieve for the loss of innocent lives and the psychological injuries to all. Until our country (and each of us) recognizes the need for sweeping revamping of gun laws and both physical and mental health access/treatment, ticking bombs will continue to go off. None of imagines a mad gunman will enter our home this afternoon, but it will happen somewhere. We are a nation that must point fingers and find blame, the news channels are full of it. No one is satisfied until someone 'pays' for letting this happen (HUH?) or for not having safety locks, warnings sent out, etc. After 911, we couldn’t even take liquid nose drops on an airplane. Are we really preparing in proper ways? Our children ARE safe at school until the next mad person cracks and that is not the fault of the school.

Josh wrote on Apr 17, 2007 10:12 AM:excellent post, Wrong Place.

To Wrong Place wrote on Apr 17, 2007 11:22 AM:Excellent. We forget that anywhere, any time, unstable humans (of all races) roam our neighbor hods freely, carrying legal weapons, plotting, planning, or maybe just cracking "I can't take it anymore" and there go more innocent bystanders who got in the deranged person's way. Please, if you have suspicions about someone, notify authorities, then get out of harm's way. We too often don't want to get 'involved' and ignore warning signs. That is tantamount to accessory to a crime possibly about to happen. Ignoring the ill, lonely, mentally deranged only catapults their insanity and they want to strike back at that ignorance. What happened to BLOCK MOTHERS, neighborhood watch? Too busy? You could be next. We are not a UNITED nation; we are sadly divided, as many of these posts reveal.

Reality wrote on Apr 17, 2007 11:28 AM:How can anyone say that violence in our media isn't affecting us? Young people continually see violence glamorized in Hollywood movies, music and video games. We, as a nation have to stop glamorizing violence and allowing our children to be exposed to it.

The Ugly Duckling wrote on Apr 17, 2007 3:12 PM:Maybe the Ugly Duckling Story should be requierd reading in every grade? The ugly ducklin grew up to be a lovely swan, but if the ugly duckling had been so shamed he could not recover, perhaps he would have attacked others? And why do some 'gugly duscklings' strive to better themselves, work hard, and form goals?

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