TUE., APR 17, 2007 - 12:57 AM Lampert Smith: Parents live with fear for children SUSAN LAMPERT SMITH Wisconsin State Journal Contact Susan Lampert Smith at ssmith@madison.com or 608-252-6121.

I'm sure cell phones were ringing all over the UW- Madison campus, and others, as the news spread about the Virginia Tech shootings. On the students' phones, the word "Mom" lit up.

I called my college-aged son to let him know a family friend, a sophomore at Virginia Tech who lives in the dorm where the first shootings took place, was OK.

It happened at the University of Arizona in 2002. My friend Barb Monroe, who was once a nurse here at UW Hospital, was one of three nursing instructors killed by a student named Robert Flores Jr., who was angry because he was flunking. He shot her in front of her class.

Why does it happen? It happens because colleges are open places. You can walk into just about any building on most campuses. And checking for IDs doesn't help if the shooter is a student.

It's the first time some kids get a grade lower than an "A." Or the first time they flunk something. Or the first time that no matter how hard they work they can't get into elite majors or graduate programs. So, it's the first time they've failed.

And, for parents, it's the first time our children are far from home. And maybe our first realization that there's really not much we can do to protect them from the worst that life can dole out.

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