Va. Tech Families Demand Voice on Panel

FAIRFAX, Va. — Relatives of the Virginia Tech shooting victims demanded representation yesterday on a gubernatorial panel studying the killings, saying in a letter that they feel "ostracized."

They also questioned the status of a memorial fund that has generated millions of dollars to honor the 32 victims of the student gunman.

"We are angry about being ostracized from a government-chartered panel investigating a government-sponsored university, and about how the university has used the names and images of our loved ones to raise millions of dollars without any consultation," the families said in a statement presented to the review board yesterday during its third public meeting. The statement was written on behalf of 13 families, said Holly Sherman, the mother of slain student Leslie Sherman.

Governor Kaine's spokesman said the governor wanted "specialized expertise" when he named the eight-member panel, which includes a former secretary of homeland security, Tom Ridge, psychiatrists, educational specialists, and former law enforcement officials. The panel was charged to review the tragedy, the circumstances that led to it and the response.

Mr. Kaine received several hundred requests from Virginians and those outside of the state wanting to serve on the panel, including some family members, panel chairman W. Gerald Massengill said as yesterday's meeting began.

"Family is important to us. It's also important, I think, to the governor that he have a panel that was viewed as being totally objective and not driven by emotions," said Mr. Massengill, a former Virginia State Police superintendent who oversaw the agency's response to the September 11, 2001, attack on the Pentagon and the 2002 Washington-area sniper attacks.