Kate Ryan, wtop.com

WASHINGTON — Colin Goddard is a survivor of the 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech. After Thursday’s shootings, he tweeted simply, “We are the Hokies. We will prevail.”

Joseph Samaha, whose daughter Reema, 18, was killed in the shootings, wrote to WTOP in an email, “This is very traumatic news for all of us. We are still absorbing the tragic events. … I hope you understand that our concern is always directed to the victims first, and foremost. There is still so much to be done to keep our campuses safer.”

His son, Omar, who works on campus safety issues, was on the way home from a visit to James Madison University where a friend who attended Virginia Tech was getting the campus alerts on his cell phone. Omar Samaha said he was following the news but the campus alerts were coming in much faster.

“I really commend them on that, I think it’s a great thing, and it needs to happen at every university across the country,” he says.

But for that same reason, Omar Samaha says, he was puzzled by Virginia Tech’s decision to appeal a $55,000 fine for failing to alert students to danger on campus in a timely manner in the 2007 shootings. A federal law, the Clery Act, requires colleges and universities to have an emergency alert system. That law pre-dated the Virginia Tech shootings of 2007.

Samaha says he found it ironic that the university would fight that $55,000 penalty. When comparing the 2007 incident to Thursday’s response, he said, “I think Virginia Tech is doing a much better job of keeping people informed and keeping people safe.”

Thursday’s shootings opened up an old wound, but Omar Samaha can laugh when he thinks about his vibrant, social sister.

“Reema was amazing in her life and in her death.”

He explains that since her death, many people in the Virginia Tech community who knew her, connected with him

“I can’t tell you how many amazing people that I’ve met because of my sister. All her friends, the people that she knew at Virginia Tech, those people have now become my friends and my family’s friends.”

Years ago, when WTOP sat down with the Samaha family for an interview, Reema’s mother told a story of how Reema used to play dress up. Reema was a ‘girly girl,’ and when her mom would dress her in pants, a young Reema might scamper up the stairs and reappear in a tutu.

Her brother laughs at the mention of that story.

“She loved to dance, and she loved to perform. She was so good at it.”

He says each year the Virginia Tech contemporary dance ensemble puts on shows in her memory.

“I always go down to watch them. I love being where her spirit’s still alive and well.”

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(Copyright 2011 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)