Dr Aradhana A 'Bela' Sood, one of the United States's leading child and adolescent psychiatrists, has been named to a five-member blue-ribbon panel by Virginia's Democratic Governor Tim Kaine that will independently review the Virginia Tech University tragedy, where a lone gunman massacred 32 faculty and students in cold blood and then took his own life.
Sood is Chair of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Medical Director of the Virginia Treatment Center for Children at the Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center in Richmond. She came to the US in December 1982 and is the daughter of the late Lt Col Brahm Anand Avasthy who lost his life on November 23, 1962 fighting in the Indo-China war.
The review panel will be led by retired Virginia State Police Superintendent Col. Gerald Massengill, and will also include former US Secretary of Homeland Security and erstwhile governor of Pennsylvania Tom Ridge and Roger L Depue, PhD, who has over 20 years experience at the FBI, most recently as Administrator at the FBI National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime.
Kaine said, "I appreciate the willingness of these individuals to lend their time and expertise to this critically important review of the recent terrible events at Tech. This panel will provide a thoughtful, objective analysis of the circumstances leading up to, during, and immediately after Monday's horrible events."
"What we learn could result in fresh ideas that will help bolster the safety of our young people on campuses in communities across the country," he said.
Kaine said the panel would begin its work as soon as possible, and it is anticipated a preliminary review could be completed by this fall.
More from rediff