Via the APVa. Tech gunman writings raised concerns:
Professor Carolyn Rude, chairwoman of the university’s English department, said she did not personally know the gunman. But she said she spoke with Lucinda Roy, the department’s director of creative writing, who had Cho in one of her classes and described him as “troubled.”“There was some concern about him,” Rude said. “Sometimes, in creative writing, people reveal things and you never know if it’s creative or if they’re describing things, if they’re imagining things or just how real it might be. But we’re all alert to not ignore things like this.”
She said Cho was referred to the counseling service, but she said she did not know when, or what the outcome was. Rude refused to release any of his writings or his grades, citing privacy laws.
The Chicago Tribune reported on its Web site that he left a note in his dorm room that included a rambling list of grievances. Citing unidentified sources, the Tribune said he had recently shown troubling signs, including setting a fire in a dorm room and stalking some women.
ABC, citing law enforcement sources, reported that the note, several pages long, explains Cho’s actions and says, “You caused me to do this.”
Investigators believe Cho at some point had been taking medication for depression, the Tribune reported.
Classmates said that on the first day of an introduction to British literature class last year, the 30 or so English students went around and introduced themselves. When it was Cho’s turn, he didn’t speak.
The professor looked at the sign-in sheet and, where everyone else had written their names, Cho had written a question mark. “Is your name, `Question mark?’” classmate Julie Poole recalled the professor asking. The young man offered little response.
Cho spent much of that class sitting in the back of the room, wearing a hat and seldom participating. In a small department, Cho distinguished himself for being anonymous. “He didn’t real out to anyone. He never talked,” Poole said.
“We just really knew him as the question mark kid,” Poole said.
Of course, in retrospect these behaviors seem troubling. But I tell you this: if you lock up every really quiet, socially backwards college student, then we need to start building some rather massive facilities to house them.
Further, if every kid who wrote a bizarre tale in creative writing class was likewise carted off, a new wing would need to be built. Indeed, I took a short story class back at UCI and one of the students wrote an especially disturbing tale that included a violent murder and cannibalism. To my knowledge, the guy in question never went on to kill and/or eat anybody. (Indeed, Stephen King and Thomas Harris would need to be locked up right now).
Via ABC (which has a picture of Cho): Killer’s Note: ‘You Caused Me to Do This’
Cho Seung-Hui, the student who killed 32 people and then himself yesterday, left a long and “disturbing” note in his dorm room at Virginia Tech, say law enforcement sources.Sources have now described the note, which runs several pages, as beginning in the present tense and then shifting to the past tense. It contains rhetoric explaining Cho’s actions and says, “You caused me to do this,” the sources told ABC News.
[...]
Cho, born in South Korea, was a legal resident alien of the United States. He was a senior at Virginia Tech, majoring in English
The ABC reports notes that Cho bought the 9mm over a month ago. Further, he graduated from High School in Fairfax County and his parents live in Virgina.
Sphere: Related Content
I have to agree. I was very glad to have been out of high school by the time Columbine hit, because I know I would have been one of the people targeted by the heavy handed response to it if I had been around. It would have made an already difficult period of my life even more so, and I was never a threat to anyone.
Comment by Gg — Tuesday, April 17, 2024 @ 5:13 pm
Where are the parents of Mr. Hui?
Comment by Cherie — Tuesday, April 17, 2024 @ 5:33 pm
The more that we learn about the past of this person, the more obvious it is that this was a very sick mentally ill individual. Whatever happened to him? Whenever it was, I have some concerns about how he got into Virginia Tech. Did this appear gradually, suddenly or just go unnoticed because he verbally was silent. His writings should have alerted the staff and his professors that this was a reason to be concerned about this student.
Often, as a educator, you can not read a student. Students can not read the student that appears mute amongst his peers. But that should have set off some alarms.
Someone should have alerted authority *(meaning teachers, staff) but we live in a world where we are embarrassed by the signs that set our personal alarms off. However, most people are afraid to press the alert button in on students like this.
By the way, they are everywhere. No just major university setting where you would expect some stress with academics, stress with acceptance issues, or non-social students who raise the concern of any experienced educator.
Was this a problem with his high school teacher, elementary teachers? What was his past record like? He must have had good grades, but when are we going to look into the social aspect of an individual? When are we going to realize that odd behaviors are the first signs of a problem.
How many more “on the edge students” will go overboard until we wake up? Schools, educators know the routine but hestitate to label a student. Surely, in hindsight, I bet they now wish they had spoke up. This is sad!
Comment by Patricia Hudak — Tuesday, April 17, 2024 @ 6:44 pm
In fairness, his English profs did refer him to counseling.
I guess the question is: what else could one do? I have quiet, awkward (sometimes even weird) students, yet I certainly don’t have enough information to know that they need professional help.
Comment by Dr. Steven Taylor — Tuesday, April 17, 2024 @ 9:36 pm
What else could have been done, indeed?
Certainly there will be calls for all kinds of things after an incident like this.
There is, of course, criticism from the other side of the pond about our gun control laws: http://www.comcast.net/news/index.jsp?cat=GENERAL&fn=/2007/04/17/639509.html&cvqh=itn_gunlaws
And some might start making a case for forcing kids who write nasty stuff to get institutional help.
I don’t know about any of that. I’m not sure it’s really fair to start restricting free speech and taking people’s personal freedoms away because we fear what they MIGHT do. Forcing people into medical treatment and taking rights - including firearm access - because of things they have said - that is a chilling idea to me.
This was a tragic and unfortunate occurrance, but if we start locking people away or reducing their freedoms because of what we fear they MIGHT do, where and when do we stop doing this?
Comment by CPT D — Wednesday, April 18, 2024 @ 12:47 am