By Tonia Moxley

School officials are helping the military even as they grapple with yet another gruesome link to Blacksburg. On Thursday, news broke that Nidal Malik Hasan, a 1995 Tech graduate formerly of Roanoke, allegedly opened fire on fellow soldiers in a medical waiting room at Fort Hood, Texas, killing 13 and injuring about 30.

Military officials dealing with the Nov. 5 Fort Hood shootings have called on Virginia Tech for guidance in coping with the trauma that follows such violence.

It’s been more than two years since Tech English major Seung-Hui Cho gunned down 32 students and faculty and injured dozens more in the worst school shooting in U.S. history.

In that time, there has been healing and solidarity. Officials have implemented new security measures and training on campus and in the community. State legislators have revised public policy and bolstered mental health services across the state.

But in many ways, the community here is still reeling, not just from the aftereffects of April 16, 2007, but from a string of subsequent tragedies that have befallen Tech students.

The crimes and the national spotlight under which these events are now analyzed create a feeling of “yet again, here’s another one. It’s draining after a while,” reported a campus minister at Tech.