This year at Virginia Tech, April 16 was quiet and serene. Where mass shootings had claimed 32 lives and plunged the campus into chaos and grief a year ago, students, staff members, and neighbors marked the anniversary on Wednesday with calm resolve.
Under a clear morning sky, thousands of mourners clad in Hokie orange and maroon streamed onto the Drillfield, the heart of the vast campus here, for an official commemoration. As a student wind ensemble played, uniformed cadets stood watch over a memorial flame, lit at midnight for the 32 victims. The Virginia state flag, at half staff, hung still.