Yep....let the media get ahold of it and they’ll start blaming the President of the school rather than the guy that committed the crime.
The VT President could be seen to have behaved as he did because he was being accused of failing to act. And was then acting out of self interest.
In a large part I blame our fictional media. TV and movies present the appearance of either hyper-competance or selfish corruption among people in positions of power.
The great unwashed who have no real contact with such jobs and responsibilities come to believe this manufactured image.
The Powers That Be are assumed to be responsible for knowing the unknowable and predicting the future accordingly. If they do not do so, it must be due to incompetence or corruption.
From this, many people shape their world-view. Then they vote.....
Just my fevered thought....