The U.S. Department of Education is fining Virginia Tech $55,000 for violating federal law by waiting too long to notify students during the 2007 massacre on its Blacksburg campus. The fine was the maximum the school could receive for its violations of the Clery Act, the federal law that governs the information colleges must disclose about campus crime. “While Virginia Tech’s violations warrant a fine far in excess of what is currently permissible under the statute, the Department’s fine authority is limited,” the letter to the school says. After his first two slayings, gunman Seung-Hui Cho went on to kill another 30 people before turning the gun on himself in the deadliest shooting rampage on a college campus in U.S. history. ?– Emily Babay
