By Jacquie Rath
Burdi was safe in his room located just a short distance from the 2,600 acre campus where Cho Seung-Hui, a senior from South Korea, shot and killed 32 people before turning the gun on himself.
"If I had gone to my class I would have walked right through the middle of the whole thing," said Burdi who was raised in Rockville Centre and attended Kellenberg Memorial High School. "I realized something was wrong when I saw I had three missed calls on my cell phone - all from my dad."
Due to an extraordinarily large call volume to and from the campus after the massacre, Burdi was unable to reach his parents, Glen and Linda, for over fifteen minutes. Eventually his roommate informed him of the tragic events that had occurred and the two students sat riveted to television coverage of the tragedy and watched the events unfold.
"We watched as the counts coming in of ten people injured became twenty or more fatalities," said Burdi. "It felt like something exploded. The event went from a supposed domestic dispute on campus to an event that affected the entire country. "
In addition to watching the national television coverage, Burdi and his fellow students received information on the changing situation via the campus e-mail system. "The initial email blast which was sent out stated that there had been a murder on campus," said Burdi. "We felt as though it was an isolated incident. A couple hours later there was another email that came out urging students to stay where they were because there was a gunman loose on campus. Many people are wondering if more information had been released earlier would more people have been saved."
Burdi classified the mood on campus as somber the day after the events that left many at the school in the state of shock . "They've closed the school for the rest of the week. My parents wanted me to come home [to Rockville Centre], but I feel it is important for me to be here." Burdi who is the president of his fraternity, Theta Xi, planned to join his fraternity brothers for lunch before attending a campus convocation. Virginia's Governor Tim Kaine and President George W. Bush were expected to be among the speakers at the convocation.
The impact of the Virginia Tech massacre, which comes just days before the eighth anniversary of the shootings at Colombine High School in Colorado, has already reached far beyond the school's 25,000 students. "Not only have [the victims] been robbed of their future, but society as a whole has been stripped of any future contributions they may have made," said Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy-New York in a statement released on Monday. "My heart goes out to the families of those lost ."
According to Burdi the school usually hosts a spring football game, which was scheduled for this Saturday. As of press time there was still no word on if that event would still happen. "We should go on," he said. "When someone is murdered in their home an entire town is not shut down. That shouldn't happen here."
