In the information vacuum around the shocking killings at Virgina Tech, the spotlight was on the university’s quizzical communication strategy, which employed a high-tech, low-effort approach to informing its community about an unusual double homicide: they sent an e-mail.

It read, “A shooting incident occurred at West Amber Johnston (a dormitory) earlier this morning. Police are on the scene and are investigating,” and asked everyone on campus to use caution, and contact police if they spotted something unusual.

It was sent at 9:26 a.m, about two hours after the murders.

As details emerge about the shootings, perpetrated by student Cho Seung-Hui, it’s becoming clear the dormitory murders were a precursor to his murderous rampage. Investigators say they were blindsided, as they theorized the first killings were an isolated domestic incident.

Except they weren’t described as killings. They were, in an astounding display of euphemism, called a “shooting incident,” an antiseptic that concealed any danger of the situation.

School officials decided to placate, rather than inform. Instead of truth – that two people, including a residence adviser, had been shot dead, and the killer’s location was unknown – they preferred vague phrases and mild warnings, true statements that were far from the truth.

Even in subsequent e-mails, as the terror unfolding in Norris Hall started to dominate headlines, the university’s communications didn’t tell the whole story.

At 9:50 a.m., a gunman was reported loose on the campus (the student and faculty population of which is roughly equal to the city of Lewiston). At 10:16 a.m., classes were canceled. At 10:52 a.m., the second shooting was reported, as were the presence of victims, and police had a shooter in custody.

Only at 12:41 p.m., as the nation watched in horror, did officials finally level with the Virginia Tech community. “Here are the facts we know,” an e-mail from President Charles W. Steger stated, several hours after the facts could have perhaps saved a life.

We’ve made much about the importance of school security in our rural corner of Maine, under the argument it could happen anywhere. We believe schools should have their security plans open to public scrutiny, to reassure parents, and others, of plans’ existence and effectiveness.

It makes little sense to have worst-case scenarios, as what happened at Virginia Tech, reveal flaws in a response plan. Keeping these protocols open to the public won’t facilitate their circumvention, as critics maintain, but should expose cracks before the pressure of tragedy does.

Sending a vague e-mail to inform the campus should have been flagged as ridiculous long ago. Response plans must provide the necessary information to keep others from harm.

In its decision to downplay the truth, the administration of Virginia Tech faltered in its duty.

Text of the e-mails were provided to the Albany (N.Y.) Times-Union, and are available on timesunion.com.