Chinese woman cited for rescuing US campus students
A Chinese woman assistant professor, or rather a doctoral student at the college of engineering at Virginia Tech, has shed a light onto the campus shooting rampage on April 16, which claimed a toll of 33 lives (including that of the gunman himself). In the past two days, a wise Chinese middle-age lady has been featured in American media, and her name is Haiyan Cheng, who, calm and composed, rescued the lives of students in her class at an extremely precarious situation. When her story was released and publicized, many Americans admired her courage from their bottom of hearts, "Really great, the Chinese."
April 16 was a murky day at Virginia Tech when Seung-hui Cho, a young South Korean student, drenched the university compass in bloodbath. In Classroom 206, when students of civil engineering were having their lesson, their professor fell in blood. In Room 207, a German lesson was in session, 10 of a dozen students were shot and killed, in Room 211, a French lesson was in session, there were about 15 casualties out of the 20 students at the class and their professor was massacred ��
Meanwhile, in Room 205, the whole class still retained intact as Haiyan Cheng, the assistant professior, was filling in for the professor, who was away at a conference.
Cheng, now in her late 30s and the mother of one daughter, came to the United States from the city of Hohhot, northern China in 1998. She obtained a Master's degree in Applied Mathematics from Michigan Technological University and a Master's degree in Computer Science from the University of Windsor, Canada. She is now working on her PH.D at the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech and concurrently serves as an assistant professor.
Cheng arrived at the campus oft Virginia Tech earlier as usual that day (April 16). Her class started at nine o"clock sharp am and went into her office to at 8:50 am to check her emails. When she went into her class at about 9 am, an unexpected tragedy occurred all of sudden shortly afterwards.
In an interview with the "Washington Post", she recalled: "At 9:40 am, or 15 minutes before the end of my class, I heard the loud banging outside, very loud outside the classroom, but I could hardly tell where the banging came from, but one thing was certain that we were very close to the source of the banning. I mistook it as construction noise at first. Then came silence, a ten-minute silence, and more pops followed as I turned to the next subject..."
A female student sitting at the front row was curious and rose to look around to see what was happening. Chen and that female student went to the door and peered out. It turned out that queer sounds came from Room 208, but no abnormity so far could be seen as its door kept closed. All of a sudden, they saw a man emerge from Room 208 across the hall. He was holding a gun, but it was pointed down. This gave her a start. At this moment, two boy students rushed out from corridors, and the gunman gunned down them immediately. two bullets flashing past Cheng's ears, and they quickly shut the door.
"When coming back into the room, she told her students that the situation was in peril and then called every one to crawl onto the ground. One student from India, Zach Petkowicz, who was near the lectern "cowering behind it", realized the door was vulnerable, so proposed propping it up to stop the gunman from entering the room. There was a heavy rectangular table in the class, and she and several of her students pushed it against the door. When sporadic fire shots were heard, Cheng urged her students not to be scared but to hide themselves. No sooner had they fixed it in place than the gunman pushed hard from the outside. He forced it open about six inches, but no farther. He fired two shots through the door. In an e'mail to her friends, she said "we all crawled on the ground and felt very panic when heard the gunman change (cartridge) chargers. People inside the room used mobile phones to report the case to police. The gunman tried hard to open the doors several times but failed and then moved on. But sporadic fire shots did not end. Cheng and her students hid them in the room till they heard sounds of siren from outside the window.
These startled students and Cheng stayed behind in the room till everything calmed down outside and heard knocks on the door. They finally verified when Cheng verified those knocked on the door was policeman. When the police were leaving, they told students it was safe then and other fellow policemen would soon arrive soon. And other police came one minute later, students lined up after them and escaped, Cheng acknowledged.
Once outside the classroom, Haiyan Cheng saw used cartridges scattered on the ground, She urged her students to run away and not to step onto blood strains. When Cheng heard a female student sobing, she turned round to take her hand and lead her to safety along with other students.
As soon as she escaped the danger, she emailed her husband and her research team about her safety.
Despite praises lavished upon her, Cheng remained a low profile, saying her students had filled her with pride, and they did very well indeed. They worked together at the critical moment and made the correct decision. She said she felt extremely brtu sorry and appalled about such a tragedy, which posed a terrible nightmare for Virginia Tech.
On the evening of April 16, Haiyan Cheng attended a funeral service at Blacksburg Church at the site of Virginia Tech, an Associated Press reporter took a photo of her praying for those who had died in the mass killings, which were used by a number of American media press units. On April 17, Cheng and her husband were shown attending another grand funeral service, The Washington Post carried her story in its websites, which was spread far and wide. People praised her "bravery" and the friend of one reporter referred to her as "the great hero of that classroom', and quite a few netizens said that she had won the honor for the Chinese, and foster their "positive image".
Zheng, who however remained sober-minded, referred to herself as as simply "no hero". She said she was simple-minded, and what she was thinking about was only for survive. To be specific, they only did a correct thing, she said.
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Original Source: People's Daily Online, China
<a href="http://english.people.com.cn/200704/23/eng20070423_368938.html"> http://english.people.com.cn/200704/23/eng20070423_368938.html</a>
PD reporter Duan Congcong and PD special report to the UN Headquarters Hou Lingyu
2007-07-18
Na Mi
eng
Virginia Tech students react
<b>In wake of tragedy, students reflect on shootings that rocked community, describe "fearful environment"</b>
Jordan Dods and Courtney Kessler, Cavalier Daily Associate Editors
Only in her worst nightmares could Nicole Shyti have anticipated the carnage transpiring as she slept on the fifth floor of West Ambler Johnston dormitory yesterday morning. One floor beneath her, two Virginia Tech students had been murdered by a gunman who was still at large. It wasn't until 9:30 a.m., when a friend called her to make sure she was safe, that she learned about the killings.
Shyti said she heard the sounds of siren after siren outside her dorm room. It was at that point, she said, that she knew something serious had happened.
"I saw people running across the lawn outside, and it was just a lot of commotion," Shyti said.
The shootings, which eventually left 33 dead, instantly transformed the Virginia Tech campus into a worldwide epicenter of tragedy and confusion. The campus was left nearly deserted as the university went on lockdown. An impromptu vigil on the Drill Field yesterday evening captured the intensity of emotion. Students locked arms -- some crying -- still waiting to find out whether friends had made it out alive.
Virginia Tech student George Lane-Roberts said the rapid escalation of casualties left him "dumbfounded and shocked."
As students spent the day within the familiar walls of their dorms, press outlets from around the world descended on Blacksburg to report the greatest tragedy to hit an American college campus.
That blanket of media coverage provided many Tech students, hunkered around televisions, with their primary window into the events of the day. Tech student Joseph Chapman said he first found out about the shootings on TV before reading official e-mails from the university.
Some have criticized Tech's response to the initial shooting as too little too late, saying that an earlier lockdown of campus could have prevented 30 deaths. The initial e-mail from the university came almost two hours after the first shooting occurred. Lane-Roberts recalled a shooting in Blacksburg on the first day of classes last August. He said he remembered that the entire campus had been locked down, even though no students were casualties of that shooting.
Members of the media may be coming to their own conclusions, but students at Tech are still more confused than angered by the administration's response.
Nathan Carter, who is still waiting to find out whether three of his friends are all right, said he doesn't blame the administration for its handling of the shootings.
"Hindsight is 20/20," he said, adding that what Virginia Tech officials thought they had on their hands with the Ambler Johnston incident was a domestic dispute gone wrong.
Freshman student Holly Faust said she was leaving campus, on her way to Radford University with a friend. By late afternoon, she said half of the students in her dorm had already left. Faust, who lives on the top floor of Slusher dormitory, one of the tallest buildings near Norris Hall, said a number of students went up to the top floor to observe clumps of police. Despite being within eye shot of the center of events, Faust said she also relied on television news reports for information about the unfolding events.
Faust said she received the first official e-mail informing students of the shooting at about 9:30 a.m. and decided not to go to class.
Many students first heard about the massacre not from the Virginia Tech e-mails, but through calls, e-mails and instant messages from friends and concerned family members.
A resident advisor in Payne dormitory, who has chosen to remain anonymous, said he found out about the incident through an instant message from a friend.
To notify his residents, the RA said he posted notices in stairwells and alerted students leaving the building to be cautious.
He said RAs are trained extensively to handle serious situations such as this. Most of his duties yesterday included dispelling rumors and providing his residents with as much information as was available, he said.
Carter described how the lack of solid information added to the confusion surrounding the events, saying the rumors ranged from gang-member involvement to "ridiculous" reports that the shooter was eight feet tall. Some may have falsely assumed that the shooter was lurking nearby, even after he had killed himself -- fears that were heightened by the saturation of gun-toting police who were sweeping the campus for any suspicious activity.
Lane-Roberts said he and other students watched from a window as two police officers with assault rifles "tackled" a black student. The officers were "shouting" at students to close the blinds and "get in our rooms," he said.
Chapman said RAs played a major role in communicating the lockdown to students.
Virginia Tech freshman Margaret Hatcher said she never left her room because she had been advised to stay there and distance herself from the windows; however, her roommate had to find shelter in an academic building.
"My roommate was actually in class this morning, and actually she was in the building next door to Norris," Hatcher said. "They took them all into the basement for a few hours" and around 12:30 p.m. told them to leave campus immediately.
Sophomore Erik Stange said he lives off campus and learned of the situation when his parents called him around 11 a.m.
Stange said he later learned from friends that a friend of his who was an RA in West Ambler Johnston had been shot.
"He got shot in the leg, [so] hopefully he'll be okay," Stange said.
Hours later, Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Finchum confirmed that an RA in West Ambler Johnston had died.
Stange is just one of many students forced to cope with uncertainties about yesterday's events.
"At this point, there are still a lot of questions and not answers," Shyti said. "We're in a fearful environment right now, [and] I think what contributes to the fear is that people don't know what's safe."
As the community looks to beging the healing process, Virginia Tech has organized a memorial service in Cassell Coliseum, the basketball stadium, to be held today at 2 p.m. Freshman Elizabeth Rogers said she plans to attend the service.
"Even though I don't know anyone directly who [has] been harmed, I just feel that as a university we need to band together ... and try to find the best way to be there for everyone in this time of need," Rogers said.
Virginia Tech President Charles Steger said the university is starting a "long, difficult road" to recovery from the massacre. As the initial shock turns into a quest for answers, students at Virginia Tech are finding that the first step on that road is coming to terms with the magnitude of what has occurred.
As one RA said, "Most of us are just kind of sitting here wondering when we're going to wake up, because it feels like a dream."
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Original Source:<a href=http://www.cavalierdaily.com/CVArticle.asp?ID=30159&pid=1582> The Cavalier Daily - April 17, 2007</a>
Jordan Dods and Courtney Kessler
The Cavalier Daily
2007-07-31
Sara Hood
Meggie Bonner <meggiebonner@gmail.com>
eng
Haiyan Cheng's experience on April 16 and people's responses
Hi, all:
Thank you all for your concern, I'm safe. Here's what was happened to me yesterday. I'm so proud of all my students, please pray for our community to recover from this huge lost and sorrow!
Take care all!
Haiyan Cheng
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It was April 16 2007,a cold and windy morning for Blacksburg. I have class to teach at 9:05 AM. It is "CS4414-Issues in scientific computing", a class for senior student in CS and Math students. Whenever my advisor went to conference, I would take over the lecture. I went to my office in Torgerson Hall at 8:50, checked email, left my cell phone charging, (last Friday there was the bomb threat that made us evacuated immediately, that time I remembered to take my cell phone and laptop, but forgot the charger) and left laptop in the office and went to Norris Hall to teach. One of my colleagues asked earlier where is my classroom. I told him Norris 204 or 205 (the first classroom on the left hand side at the second floor), I'm not sure. So the first thing I went to the second floor, Norris hall, is to check my room number. It is indeed 205, 204 is across the hall, I took a quick look at the classroom, about 20 students were sitting there, an old professor with white hair was taking his teaching material out of his briefcase.
At 9:00 am, I went into the classroom, everything was as usual, the window opened a little bit, we can feel the breeze. I started the "Numerical solution of ODE" lecture. I covered analytical solution, discussion on existence and uniqueness, there was about 15 minutes left till the end of the lecture, it was about 9:40. Several loud "Band, Bang, Bang"came from outside of the classroom. They were really loud. I was not sure where it came from, but it seemed very close to us. We all thought it was some kind of construction. Then it stopped for 5-10 sec. I was about to start another topic on stability analysis. Then the sound came again. Teresa, the female student sitting close to the door stood up and went to check. I followed her, with the lecture note still in my hand. We were standing at the door, sticking our heads out and checking what happened. The sound came from room 208, the room across the hall, to the left of our classroom. The door is closed. I gazed at that door for 2 seconds. Then the door opened, a guy walked out, I only saw him 1 sec, but the most shocking thing is that he's holding a black handgun. He wears black, his face is square (roundish). Both I and Teresa came back in immediately, the gun shot right besides our ear. My ear is hurting by the loud sound. The first thing we came back in the classroom is telling everyone down, an Indian student said, let's block the door with table, so he can't get in. 4 guys in my class moved the big table next to the podium and blocked the door. (There's no window and no lock on the door. When there's lecture going on, usually we left the classroom door wide open.) While we were doing this, the gun shot keeps firing outside of the classroom. I and another girl were behind the podium. The other 2 girls were at the back of the classroom. 4 guys are lying on the ground in front, pushing against the desk legs. After about 1 minute shooting in the hallway, the gunman approaches our classroom. He was trying to open the door, but those students push really hard, then he began to shoot the door. The bullets came through the door, woodchips and metal pieces are everywhere. One bullet even hit the podium. Two of my students at the back underneath the desk were calling 911 with their cell phones, and talking to the police, they told the police there were 11 people in classroom 205, the gunman is still outside shooting. After the gunman tried several times, he gave up and began to shot somewhere else. The gun shot keeps going, "Bang, Bang, Bang", all I can do is knee down there and pray to God "Please stop him, please stop the gun fire, please..." Then we heard the police car siren from outside. One student asked that if we should jump out of the window. It's only the second floor. But we all thought that we should stay here, until things are clear outside.
The gun shot sounds further and further. But still not stop. Before we went out to check, we already heard about 20, after we came in, we heard about 30-40, or even more than that. It was terrible. We waited and waited....We heard several unclear shout from outside "show me your hand, show me your hand" etc...but we are not sure if that were police or not. Until finally there was the knock at the door. Those guys made sure they were police, and we opened the door. The police had a gun in his hand, asking us all hands up, and go to the back of the classroom. He asked if anybody got injured. We told him no, then he asked us to sit down, keep calm. Then he was about to leave. One student asked him to close the door, since we thought they might still be searching the gunman. He said we were safe, and called another police officer to come at the door, 1 minute later, the police officer told us to stand in a line and run after him, leave our personal stuff behind. I was standing close to the podium, so I quickly grabbed my key and coat, running with the police. I saw the clip on the floor right outside of our classroom. We try not to step on the blood and run quick. I didn't even look at the other classroom, but Lisa running right behind me started to cry, I turned around, held her hand, we run together out of the Norris hall and into the Randolph Hall, while still shocking, the first thing I did is borrowed a laptop from another student and sent an email to my husband and our research group, telling them I was safe.
I am so proud of all my students, they did a great job. We did the right things to save our lifes. I am so sorry about those students and professors, I can't believe 1 hour ago, I saw them all sitting in the classroom.
So far, my cell phone and laptop are still in my office in Torgerson hall, since the building is closed, I'm almost disconnected from the outside world. All I did is using my neighbor's Internet to reply some messages that concerned about my safety. It was a terrible tragedy for Virginia Tech, for Blacksburg. Please pray for those families that lost of their loved ones. Let's all cherish every minute of our life.
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Comments:
I really admire that Haiyan is so brave and she even saved people's lives. I am pround of her and pround of being a Chinese.
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I am a former VT student, I have read all the emails and news regarding this tragedy. I am so proud that we Chinese people have such a brave student who saved a lot of lives. May God bless all of us.
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Hi Haiyan,
Thank you so much. I am very proud of you. I sincerely admire your bravery and tact. We are all shocked by this unimaginable tragedy. Wish you all got recovered soon.
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my dear friends
blacksburg, means beautiful memory to me and my family. since yesterday, we were shocked. but piece by piece we know what happened. i'm proud for all of you, been through this tragedy, we saw heroes arise, we saw people helping each other. ACSS did good job on calm down fellow members. every single one of you is a hero to me. my salute extend to all of you. my wife, my unborn child wish you all recover from this. it's a tough job to do, but we all believe in you. let's go hokies!!!
zheng
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Definitely, let's give Haiyan a big applause for what she did to save people's lives. Not everyone could keep calm and respond correctly like she did.
Haiyan, you did a very excellent job! Pray for your recovering as soon as possible from the nightmare.
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Frankly, telling truth doesn't necessarily mean defying of victims. Help identify truth is also a kind of respect, especially given so many questions not answered yet. Tell Media the truth is our responsibility and whether accepting or not is in their side.
J.L
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I guess I am one of the foreigners on the list and I want to say that I have sent Haiyan's story to several friends and family members. My mother, who lives in Gainesville, FL, said she read something like that story in her paper on Tuesday morning. My husband and I applaud the actions of Haiyan--what a brave and selfless thing to do, to be able to keep one's wit together and save others--and I think it's important that everyone's story be told when possible. As far as I can tell, the media is not ignoring stories--their goal is to gain as many viewers as possible. All students, regardless of ethnic origin or country, are part of the VT community. Thank you all for everything you bring to our country and our community. Tell your stories when you can. Everyone benefits.
Cindy Bertelsen
VT alumnae, HNFE
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Dear all,
First of all, Haiyan was definitely brave. She and her students (e.g.Teresa and the Indian student) had been a team acting smartly and bravely to save their lives.
But more important, no matter she is a hero or not, we all love her and are so thankful that she survived this terrible event.
Let's pray for the victims and their families and all the alives.
Stay safe,
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Hi, all:
Again, thank you all for your concern about me. There are so many news about me right now in both US and China. I can't believe how fast the news spread these days. I got lots of emails and phone calls everyday day from all sorts of medias, (which made my cell phone airtime used up super quick, I guess most of you had the similar situation). I stayed after midnight in office to process emails. At first I returned every phone calls as soon as I got my cell phone, but some of the media started to dig my personal info, which I thought is totally unnecessary, the focus should be the tragedy. I think I'm not a heroine, I wasn't one of the person who blocked the door. I'm just one of the survivors, which is written in the short story and sent to you guys earlier. For most of the medias, all I told them was to use the story I wrote and the interview clip by Washington Post. That was my experience, that was what happened to me, according to my memory. Talking about the same tragedy again and again did bring my memory back to those horrible moments again and again. I wish you all can understand. All I want is to get back to normal life ASAP as you all wished. If necessary, I will talk to one of the major medias, so that there will only be one correct information source. There must be a reason that my life was spared, I wish all of us can learn something, live our life to the fullest, enjoy every moment with the loved one, think positive...
Yesterday there was the disaster relief truck on campus that provided free food and drinks for all the community members. There are many counseling services on campus.
Today while I stopped at the red light at the corner of college street and Main street. There was an American girl sitting on a bench, smiling and waving to the passengers and drivers passing by. There was a sign besides her reads: "Need someone to hear, I will listen. (Free hugs)...." I didn't cry when I was in danger, but at that moment I can't stop my tears running down. At this time, all we need is the healing, not only for me, but for all the Hokies and families.I was really touched by the candlelight vigil last night, at the moment when all Hokies are united, I saw hope...
I'm available to you guys for visit, Thanks for ACSS and everyone in the community.
Let's go! Hokies!
Haiyan Cheng
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Original Source:Cheng,Haiyan's narrative, and compiled by Mi,Na
Haiyan Cheng
2007-07-22
Na Mi
eng