Police, guards and school officials on Wednesday struggled to shield Westfield High School students from the rush of international media sparked by a recent graduate’s killing of more than 30 people at Virginia Tech — including two other alumnae of the western Fairfax County school.
Cho Seung-Hui, who graduated from Westfield in 2003, took his own life after shooting nearly 50 people in Blacksburg.
Students, clearly uneasy with the presence of cameras and reporters, visited two boulders on the outskirts of the school which had been painted and decorated with flowers and pictures in memory of the two slain Virginia Tech freshman: Erin Peterson and Reema Samaha. One student, on the boulder decorated for Peterson, wrote: “You had the biggest heart, may angels lead you in.”
“Their contributions to the school and the community are too many to list,” Westfield President Tim Thomas told reporters in a short statement on school grounds that afternoon.
Sarah Crossett, 18, a recent graduate of Westfield and a classmate of both Peterson and Samaha at Virginia Tech, had kind words for both of them.
“She was always very energetic, very funny,” said Crossett of Peterson. “I don’t think I ever saw her in a bad mood.”
Crossett said 58 members of her graduating class attend Virginia Tech. Westfield, which opened in 2000, has about 3,200 students.
