STATE COLLEGE, Pa.
Photos of two Penn State University students dressed up for Halloween as victims of this spring’s Virginia Tech massacre — wearing Virginia Tech shirts covered in bullet holes and fake blood — led to a rebuke from their university this week.
The April 16 attack, in which Virginia Tech student Seung-Hui Cho fatally shot 32 people before killing himself, was the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.
The pictures recently surfaced on social networking site Facebook.com. 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, told the Centre Daily Times newspaper the school has identified the students, but would not release their names.
The students will not face university discipline, Powers said. Punishment would violate their free-speech rights as guaranteed under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, she added.
—Associated Press
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