The two as yet (publically) unidenfied Penn State students should thank their lucky stars that this country still allows First Amendment Rights. Considering that one of the shooting victims was a recent graduate of PSU who was at Virginia Tech in a forestry graduate program, their halloween costumes were in very bad taste. Hopefully, they will be identified in the future and then the court of public opinion will give them their comeuppance.
From the AP Wire:
Saturday December 08, 2007, 8:37 PM
“Photos of two Penn State students dressed up as victims of the Virginia Tech massacre for Halloween prompted a rebuke from the university this week.
The pictures, which show the students wearing Virginia Tech shirts covered in bullet holes and fake blood, recently surfaced on Facebook.com, a social networking site. The students were not disciplined, but Penn State condemned the actions in a letter sent to Virginia Tech officials.
“We’re appalled that these individuals would display this level of insensitivity and lack of common decency by dressing up in this manner,” the statement said. “The fact that one of the individuals is actually from Virginia makes it even more difficult to understand.”
A Penn State spokeswoman, Lisa Powers, said the school has identified the students in the photos, but would not release their names.
The students will not face university discipline, Powers said. Punishment would violate their free-speech rights, she added.”
[Ed.: identifying them, however, will not violate any of their constitutional rights. The two chuckleheads should be made to travel to VTU and apologize for their offensive and insensitive antic.]
