STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – 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.
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"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.
Penn State students were among many across the country who raised money and held memorial services to commemorate the victims of the April 16 shootings, in which Virginia Tech student Seung-Hui Cho fatally shot 32 people before killing himself. The rampage prompted universities nationwide to re-evaluate their emergency response plans.
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