Georgia sports for Thursday, November 1st

There is college football action ahead tonight for Georgia Tech. They'll be on their home turf in Atlanta to tangle with Virginia Tech. Georgia Tech's Yellow Jackets enter the game with a 5-3 record, looking for a win to bolster their post-season bowl game hopes, and a chance to win the ACC's Coastal Division. Virginia Tech comes into tonight on the 6-2 mark. Georgia Tech has an injury problem at running back with their top two options both out for this evening: Tashard Choice and Raushaun Grant.

Report: UGA needs 911 system

A University of Georgia report says that the school needs to get a 911 system as soon as possible. U-G-A President Michael Adams asked two committees to study the emergency preparedness and psychological services at the school, immediately following the Virginia Tech
shootings in April.

The report says UGA’s top safety priority should be an enhanced and reverse 911 system. It should be in place within the next two years. The UGA alert system should automatically have every faculty, staff, and students’ phone number and e-mail address. According to the committee, participation in the system should be mandatory unless an individual opts out. The report also urged UGA police to work on its 28% turnover rate.

Another major suggestion in the report is to create a Behavioral Assessment and Response Council. It would intervene when someone on campus exhibits disturbing behavior. Implementation of the report’s 38 recommendations would cost more than 3 million dollars.

Student threat at University of Georgia

In light of the recent Virginia Tech shootings, University of Georgia police responded swiftly Monday to a perceived threat of student violence.

Following a private conversation, a university professor told police that graduate student Brandon Ginyard could be a threat to himself or others. Although Ginyard's alleged statements were vague, University of Georgia Police Chief Jimmy Williamson says they were disturbing enough to take action.

"There was no overt threat to any student, any faculty, or anybody at the University of Georgia. I couldn't really assess the risk, but we felt we couldn't wait to see either".

When officers arrived at Ginyard's off-campus apartment to take him into custody for mental evaluation, they say he confronted them with a gun. Police say they quickly disarmed Ginyard and arrested him on two counts of aggravated assault on a police officer.

Ginyard is currently being evaluated for further mental treatment.

Pine Mountain mourns Jamie Bishop

Jamie Bishop

As a church bell tolled under a cloudy sky on a windy afternoon in Pine Mountain, several hundred mourners paid their last respects to Jamie Bishop.

Bishop, a German professor at Virginia Tech University was killed in last Monday's shooting rampage.

Those leaving the service, held at the town's First United Methodist Church, described an emotional, standing-room-only sermon given by Pastor Matthew Mitchell.

Pastor Matthew Mitchell speaking
with worshipers after service.
(Dave Bender)
The Bishop family are active members of the church, and are well known in the community.

Among the visitors was local State representative Vance Smith, who spoke of Jamie's skills and talents, and how, in his words, Pine Mountain “wasn't quite big enough to hold him.”

Smith told of memories of Jamie riding his bicycle through town's streets as a child. Smith said Jamie would have gone far, had his life not been cut so tragically short.

"Even though he wasn't living here, he was a loss to this area," Smith said.

More details on this story are available here.

Virginia Tech slaying victim to be laid to rest today

Jamie Bishop
The funeral for Jamie Bishop of Pine Mountain, a professor at Virginia Tech University who was killed in the shooting massacre at the school on Monday, April 16, will be held today.

The service is planned for 3 PM at the First United Methodist Church of Pine Mountain, where his parents, Michael and Jeri Bishop, live and are members.

First United Methodist Church
of Pine Mountain (Dave Bender)
More details on this story are available here, here and here.

Virginia Tech shooting victim laid to rest

Today a Georgia victim of the Virginia Tech shootings was laid to rest. A funeral was held in Augusta for 22-year-old Martinez native Ryan Clark. Clark was a month away from graduating from the school in Blacksburg, Virginia, when he was killed last Monday, along with 31 other victims and the shooter.

Georgia bells for Virginia Tech victims

Georgians are being urged by Governor Sonny Perdue to ring bells across the state at noon today, in memory of the victims at Virginia Tech. Virginia Governor Tim Kaine has designated today as an official Day of Mourning in his state. Kaine sent letters to his fellow governors across the country, asking every state take part for the occasion by ringing bells at noon.

Perdue will be part of a bell-ringing ceremony today at noon in the North Wing of the State Capitol. 33 people died in two separate shootings on the Virginia Tech campus Monday.

Columbus: CSU holds vigil for VT victims

Click on image to view slide show of
Columbus State University vigil.
(Ledger-Enquirer)

Columbus State University faculty and students held a memorial vigil Thursday to honor the victims of the shootings at Virginia Tech.

Students signed a large poster that will be sent to to the VT student government, according to a report in the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer newspaper.

Click here to view a slideshow of the event.

From a memorial letter on the GPB Radio website:

It is with great sadness that GPB learned of the death of Pine Mountain native Christopher James "Jamie" Bishop in Monday's tragic shootings on the campus of Virginia Tech.

Jamie, who was 35, was the son of Michael and Jeri Bishop of Pine Mountain. Michael is writer-in-residence at LaGrange College and is a two-time guest on Cover to Cover, GPB's monthly radio book club.

Click here to read more.

Georgians memorialize Virginia Tech victims

Governor Sonny Perdue is urging Georgians to ring bells across the state at noon on Friday in memory of the victims of Monday’s Virginia Tech shooting. Friday will be Virginia’s official day of mourning, and Virginia is asking every state to participate by ringing bells together.

The Atlanta Chapter of the Virginia Tech Alumni Association will hold a memorial service tonight for those slain in Monday’s shooting spree on the Hokie campus. The service is open to the public. It will be held at 7 tonight in Norcross at Christ the King Lutheran Church on Peachtree Parkway.

Falcons' Vick donates to Virginia Tech families

Falcons quarterback Michael Vick is donating $10,000 to assist families affected by the massacre. Vick went to Virginia Tech. The Vick Foundation is collecting donations. Vick says the money will go toward funeral expenses, transportation for family members and other support.

VA Tech: Jamie Bishop Scholarship Fund set up

Virginia Tech University has established a scholarship in the memory of Professor Jamie Bishop, killed in Monday's shooting spree.

Prof. Mary Paddock, a German teacher at the school's Foreign Languages department and a friend of Bishop's, told NBC’s Today show that The Jamie Bishop and Jocelyne Couture-Nowak Scholarships will be granted to German and French majors at the university.

Jocelyne Couture-Nowak taught French at the school and was also killed in the attack. Sixteen of the 32 people who died in the melee were faculty members and students of the university's foreign language department.

---

Donations can be made to the Virginia Tech Foundation for the Jocelyne Couture-Nowak Scholarship (for French majors) or the Jamie Bishop Scholarship (for German Majors):

Virginia Tech Foundation
University Development
902 Prices Fork Road
Blacksburg, VA 24061

Details of a memorial candlelight vigil for Jamie Bishop, held at a church in his hometown of Pine Mt. GA., Tuesday evening are here.

The interview with Paddock is here.

Pine Mountain: Candlelit vigil remembers Jamie Bishop

Jamie Bishop and wife Steffie in an
undated photograph.

Almost 300 of Pine Mountain's 1,500 close-knit residents packed the First United Methodist Church Tuesday evening, in a candlelight vigil for Professor Jamie Bishop, gunned down in his classroom at Virginia Tech University Monday.

Worshipers gather at
First United Methodist Church
after memorial service. (Dave Bender)

Reverend Matthew Mitchell led an evocative service in the candlelit room, reading out a moving, and at times, humorous sermon that Jamie had himself written and given in 1989. Chaplain Quincy Brown of nearby LaGrange College, who also held a memorial service earlier in the afternoon, read the 23rd Psalm and The Lord's Prayer. The Chancel choir sang Amazing Grace.

"It was quite a nice service we had here today," said Sam Hill, a Pine Mountain resident and friend of the family of the vigil. "The crux of the sermon was, that you never know when your time's going to come, and to be prepared."

Eaborating on the idea of a predestined fate, Hall said, "We all thought in the congregation that Matthew was given a copy of that sermon, so that he could share it with the congregation here tonight."

Stunned residents of this rural town, near Calloway Gardens, know the Bishop family well. Michael Bishop, Jamie's father is a professor at LaGrange College, his mother Jeri is a counselor at Rosemont Elementary, where Jamie attended school.

Reverend Mitchell also knows the family well. Residents and churchgoers say the Bishops are active in the church; Michael teaches Sunday school there.

"You can't have a finer family in the church than the Bishops," Mitchell told GPB News. "They're the kind of people who, after a Wednesday night dinner, clean all the pots and scrub the floors," he said. "They're very involved in all ministry aspects of the church."

Pam Sewell, who teaches at Rosemont, said Jeri spoke with the school's principal, Natalie Givins on Monday night about how to break the awful news to the children:

"'Just do one thing, and tell those kids just to do the best they can,'" Bishop said. Sewell said the issues weren't immediately discussed with the pupils on Tuesday. "If any of the children had heard anything on the news, we just said, 'we'll talk about it later.'"

"'When Mrs. Bishop got back, she was going to need a lot of hugs, and that those would be the band-aids on her heart,'" Givins gently explained to the children, Sewell said.

"Then all of our fourth and fifth-graders children made hearts, with little messages to her on them, and they're all over her door, waiting on her." Sewell said, adding that she was "sad and hurt for [the Bishops] and all the families. We're here [at the vigil] to respect and honor her."

Michael and Jeri, and Jamie's sister Stephanie attended a memorial service the same evening at Virginia Tech University. They drove there on Monday, as soon at they were told of Jamie's death.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of this story.

Meanwhile, a Columbus resident and grandmother of two students who attend Virginia Tech University is breathing a lot easier today.

Helen Burke, 81, anxiously watched her television hour after gory hour on Monday, appalled by scenes of the shooting mayhem that killed 32 students and faculty.

But her granddaughter, Arlane Gordon-Bray, was not in immediate danger having stayed in her room on campus as the day's bloody events unfolded. Only much later in the afternoon did Burke get word that her grandson, Marque Burke, was also safe.

Gordon-Bray is an assistant residence hall manager at the school, and an international studies and French major, according to a story appearing in the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer.

Lawmakers remember Georgia victims of school shooting

State Representatives stopped voting this morning to remember the professors and students who died during the shooting rampage at Virginia Tech Monday and pray for their survivors.

German Professor Jamie Bishop was the first person shot in the Norris Hall academic building. He grew up in the Pine Mountain district represented by Rep. Vance Smith Jr.

"Remember his family," Smith said, gesturing with his hand. "I've known him since he was that big. Pray for him."

Rep. Quincy Murphy (D-Augusta) recalled Martinez native Ryan Clarke, 22, as "an active, humorous and gentle friend" to those who knew him. Clarke was expected to graduate next month with a triple major in psychology, biology and English.

Gov. Sonny Perdue has ordered state flags lowered to half staff until Sunday night.

Pine Mountain resident among Virginia Tech slaying victims (Updated)

Christopher James Bishop
Undated photo from his
web site.

35-year-old Professor Jamie Bishop of Pine Mountain was among the 33 killed -- including the gunman -- in Monday's mass slaying at Virginia Tech.

Bishop was the first person shot in the Norris Hall academic building.

Bishop was previously a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Georgia where he obtained bachelor and master's degrees in German.

"We don't have much happening here, as far as the bad stuff..." Steve Earles, a close friend of the family in Pine Mountain told GPB News.

"They'll be a lot of support and love through out Christian faith ... for the Bishops," offered Earles, who teaches Sunday School together with Michael Bishop, Jamie's father.

Pastor Matthew Mitchell of the First United Methodist Church, where the Bishop family attends services said the family were “devoted church-goers and a part of our community.” Mitchell said the community was “in shock” from the news, and characterized the family as, “well-known, well-loved - just wonderful people.”

A memorial service for Bishop will be held at the LaGrange College chapel at five PM on Tuesday. A candlelight vigil is planned for seven PM, at the church.

Jamie Bishop is survived by his wife, Steffie Hofer, his sister, Stephanie, and his parents, Michael and Jeri.

Steffie is also a German professor at Virginia Tech. Michael is a professor at LaGrange College and a highly-regarded science fiction writer, and Jeri is a counselor at Rosemont Elementary School in LaGrange.

The parents drove to Virginia Tech soon after receiving word of the shooting.

President George Bush is scheduled to attend a memorial service at the school today.

Another Georgia native -- freshman Ryan Fowler of Lincoln County in east Georgia -- was not in the dorm where the first two victims were killed, because he had an early-morning meeting.

Bishop's professional website is here: http://www.memory39.com/

This post will be updated as more information becomes available.

Martinez resident among those dead at Virginia Tech

Credit: The Marching Virginians

http://www.music.vt.edu/performance/ensembles/mv/index.shtml

Nearly three dozen people are confirmed dead in a shooting spree on the Virginia Tech campus, including 22-year old Ryan Clark of Martinez, Georgia.

Clark was a resident assistant at the school's West Ambler Johnston dormitory and was one of the first killed by the lone shooter.

Marcie Anderson teaches A-P history at Lakeside High School in Evans, Georgia where Ryan was a student.

She remembers Ryan as a good student, well liked by both faculty and students.

"He always had such an upbeat outlook on life, you couldn't help being caught up in his personality."

Anderson says her favorite memory of Ryan is that Clark often complained about the difficulty of his A-P history assignments.

"But, he did them and then afterwards, when he would come back and visit he would always say, 'I used to complain so much, but it really helped.' That was a compliment in itself."

According to Virginia Tech's website, Clark completed both his biology and English degrees in December 2006. He was working toward his Ph.D. in psychology with a focus in cognitive neuroscience.

Clark was also a member of the schools band, The Marching Virginians.

Ryan Clark is survived by his twin brother, Bryan, and his parents, Stan and Lettie Clark of Martinez, Georgia.

President Bush is scheduled to visit Virginia Tech for a memorial service today.

Classes there have been cancelled indefinitely, as officials there try to piece together a motive behind the killings.

Governor orders flags to fly at half-staff

United States and Georgia State flags will fly at half-staff on state grounds through sundown Sunday to honor the victim of yesterday’s deadly shooting spree at Virginia Tech. Today Governor Sonny Perdue signed the executive order on behalf of all Georgians mourning the tragedy. 33 people were killed in the on-campus shooting in Blacksburg, Virginia.