RICHMOND, Va. -- Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine said the investigation into the Virginia Tech shootings makes it clear that a warning should have gone out quicker.

However, Kaine said a sharing of information about the gunman's mental health -- between his parents and school officials -- would have been a better way to avert the tragedy.

Kaine said "information needs to flow both ways" between schools and parents of troubled students in college.

Some family members of victims have called on Kaine to fire school officials for not acting faster after the first attack, but Kaine says those officials have suffered enough without losing their jobs.

"This is not something where the university officials, faculty, administrators have just been very blithe. There has been deep grieving about this, and it's torn the campus up," Kaine said. "If I thought firings would be the way to do that, then that would be what I would focus on."

A student who was shot in the arm in Norris Hall said he doesn't think any students would have gone to class the morning of the attack if they knew there was a killer on the loose.

School authorities waited two hours to notify students about the first shooting on campus.

"Senior university administrators, acting as the emergency Policy Group, failed to issue an all-campus notification about the [West Ambler Johnston Hall] killings until almost two hours had elapsed," according to the report of the Virginia Tech Review Panel. "University practice may have conflicted with written policies."

"The [Virginia Tech Police Department] erred in not requesting that the Policy Group issue a campus-wide notification that two persons had been killed and that all students and staff should be cautious and alert," the report said.

The report also said police should have broadened their search for suspects after they discovered the bodies of two students in a dormitory on April 16.

Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho killed two students in a dormitory just after 7 a.m. April 16, and killed 30 others and himself in a classroom building across campus more than two hours later.

The university didn't send out a warning about the first shootings until around the time Cho began his rampage in Norris Hall.

The report was first released in a private teleconference to injured students and their families. The panel was called for by Kaine in the aftermath of the shootings.

Mental Health Flaws

During Cho's junior year at Virginia Tech, the report said, numerous incidents occurred that were clear warnings of mental instability.

"Although various individuals and departments within the university knew about each of these incidents, the university did not intervene effectively," the report said. "No one knew all the information and no one connected all the dots."

The report concluded that the University's Cook Counseling Center and the university’s Care Team failed to provide needed support and services to Cho during a period in late 2005 and early 2006.

"The system failed for lack of resources, incorrect interpretation of privacy laws, and passivity," the report said. "Records of Cho’s minimal treatment at Virginia Tech’s Cook Counseling Center are missing."

The report also blames the flaws in the state's mental health system, inadequacies in services for users of the system and confusion over privacy laws.

"There is widespread confusion about what federal and state privacy laws allow. Also, the federal laws governing records of health care provided in educational settings are not entirely compatible with those governing other health records."

Kaine Troubled Gunman's Paper Not Shared

Kaine said he is troubled that violent class essays written by the gunman behind the shootings at Virginia Tech were not widely shared with law enforcement and university officials.

One of the essays included a narrative similar to the massacre that was carried out. Kaine said the issue is "a significant feature" in the report due for release Thursday by the panel he appointed to review the April 16 shootings.

Kaine said it was hard to understand why more was not done about a student who once showed a fascination with the 1999 Columbine High School shooting spree.

The report said that after the Columbine shootings, Cho's middle school teachers observed suicidal and homicidal ideations in his writings and recommended psychiatric counseling, which he received. It was at this point that he received medication for a short time.

"Although Cho's parents were aware that he was troubled at this time, they state they did not specifically know that he thought about homicide shortly after the 1999 Columbine school shootings," the report said.

Police said Virginia Tech turned over a compilation of violent writings to Virginia State Police soon after the shootings.