<p>No because some ACLU lawyer type would have sued saying his rights were being violated.</p>
<p>One thing that can be said for sure is that he may have put a ? in place of his name and may have always felt anonymous, but from now on everyone will know his name and what he did.</p>
<p>Even when they do suspend you from the school, usually its not until after the semester ends.</p>
<p>These kids jump through all kinds of hoops showing that they will be engaged, enthusiastic, participating, contributing members of the student body during the application process. How does someone (something) like this guy get through?
I’m sorry, but I’m just so angry at this animal. By his own in-class behavior, he didn’t deserve to be a student there, by his own dorm behavior, he didn’t deserve to live on campus.</p>
<p>^^Kent State, I can’t believe that someone who sets fire in his own dorm room, putting other people in danger, would be allowed to finish out the semester.</p>
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<p>Virginia Tech is not all that selective. I’m just speculating, but I think that if an applicant had academic credentials substantially above VT’s average, the admissions committee wouldn’t pay a whole lot of attention to other aspects of the applicant. After all, nobody really expects an applicant to be a potential mass murderer.</p>
<p>Another portrayal of the shooter. Talk about “anti-social”, wow.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com:80/2007/04/17/us/17cnd-ROOMMATE.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com:80/2007/04/17/us/17cnd-ROOMMATE.html</a></p>
<p>Jamie Bishop was the son of friends of ours. We never met him, but looking at his website, he was a fine and talented man.</p>
<p>sfincterSAYSwhat, that’s a very good essay.</p>
<p>To me, the real issue isn’t gun control, or how many campus police there are and how they send out notices, but getting mental health help to those who need it.</p>
<p>A couple of the Cho Seung-Hui’s plays (allegedly)</p>
<p><a href=“http://newsbloggers.aol.com/2007/04/17/cho-seung-huis-plays/[/url]”>http://newsbloggers.aol.com/2007/04/17/cho-seung-huis-plays/</a></p>
<p>In reading the above article, one thing really jumped out at me, several “had a hunch” that this young kid was troubled, but who did anything about it? I think this is the real issue here. I am really disturbed by everyone’s lack of responsibility in suspecting that this person had some issues, was very lonely and yet it doesn’t really sound like anyone did anything or at least not enough by any stretch to have possibly turned things around. I wonder what was so bad that went through his mind before this all happened? How tragic that he was so tormented that he couldn’t turn to someone, likely because he had no one. The scary thing is that there are many others no doubt who feel similarly to him and we all have a responsibility when we see someone who needs help…to help them seek it. My heart really breaks for the parents whose loss is unimaginable. I truly pray for them and I pray for him and his family who no doubt are so tormented by this tragedy.</p>
<p>Moominmama - I’m so sorry for your friends’ loss. Jamie Bishop did seem like a really neat professor…one that would have a waiting list for his classes. </p>
<p>What a waste. :(</p>
<p>Sorry but I don’t care about his mental health at this point. I agree with Geraldo, he’s a shmuck who would have done everyone a big favor by putting himself out of his misery first. Instead, he wanted to destroy as many other people as he could first.
From what is being reported anyway, he was referred to counseling, his teachers were disturbed by his graphic sadistic musings, and his dorm-mates knew he was a weirdo. I guess whatever counseling/medications he was on wasn’t doing him any good.
I’m not going to think for one minute about what he may have needed. He killed any sympathy on my part when he murdered 32 innocent people in cold blood.</p>
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<p>While I understand what you’re getting it, I wouldn’t want this sort of thinking to be carried to the point where people blame the shooter’s roommate or suite mates for not identifying him as dangerous. Colleges are full of people who seem weird or who keep to themselves. Very few of them become mass murderers.</p>
<p>anewkid, are you suggesting we should feel sorry for this guy? Or that somehow, indirectly, other people share responsibility for this? No way, I’m not going there.</p>
<p>Edit: It is not the responsibility of his classmates to try to get him to talk when he obviously didn’t want to. It is not the responsibility of his roommate to try to be his friend when he obviously doesn’t want to.</p>
<p>Is it really surprising that he fits the profile of the social misfit/outcast, depressed/angry person that has become all too common with regard to mass shootings at school, in the workplace, at the mall?</p>
<p>Unfortunately, there are a lot more people like that in society (of course, not all are going to commit such a heinous crime) - and once again (granted this is w/ the benefit of hindsight), it seems that there were warning signs which indicated that this guy/killer needed help and that maybe, if he had gotten some counseling, etc., this tragedy would never have happened.</p>
<p>“These kids jump through all kinds of hoops showing that they will be engaged, enthusiastic, participating, contributing members of the student body during the application process. How does someone (something) like this guy get through?”</p>
<p>Well, there have been complete frauds that have gotten admitted to some of the most selective schools - judging people on the basis of pieces of paper is really not the most effective way.</p>
<p>interesting update- profs recognized Cho was disturbed- one Prof went to the counseling office to seek help, and another prof worked with him one on one for some time. More will be coming out. But, he was not “under the radar”-
Incredibly tragic--------</p>
<p>DP–you don’t have to care about him, but obviously he had mental illness issues, which are most likely the key to his actions, so getting proper mental health treatment to those who need it can only be beneficial to the community we all share.</p>
<p>Caveat–I don’t mean this to suggest that someone dropped the ball with him; mental issues are hard to deal with, and the vast, vast majority of mentaly ill persons are dangers to no one, or just to themselves.</p>
<p>doubeday, you are missing the point</p>
<p>it is often a matter of self preservation to be concerned about anothers mental health</p>
<p>most killers like this have sent out signals for quite a while that things were not right</p>
<p>we aren’t saying wow, lets feel sorry for him, its more, wow, this guy has problems and we need to all be aware, and he should be monitered</p>
<p>he kept guns and ammo in his dorm room he recently bought the weapons, and if more people had been congnicent of each other, the initial thought that it was just a “domestic disturbance” would not have been so easily accepted by the police, which was why in the beginning, they didn’t know it was so serious</p>
<p>I am not placing blame on anyone except the shooter, but for self protection and safety, you need to pay attention to those around you…</p>
<p>and unless we look at what triggered this person’s rampage, how he fell through the cracks, what signs might have been missed, if he made threats that weren’t taken seriouslly, and ask some hard questions, this can happen again</p>
<p>anewkid,
“I am really disturbed by everyone’s lack of responsibility in suspecting that this person had some issues, was very lonely and yet it doesn’t really sound like anyone did anything or at least not enough.”</p>
<p>It’s not so easy to help someone who has ‘some issues’ though in this case the kid DID have help: he HAD been on antidepressants, at least for a time being, and his teachers DID notify the administration that he appeared troubled. But where do you go from there? You can’t force a person to get therapy, or to take their meds. And you’d be shocked how many kids and adults write fiction deemed ‘alarming.’</p>
<p>Agreed, if we did this then Stephen King would have been locked up years ago…</p>
<p>There are quite a few kids, even in Middle School, that are social misfits; they eat alone in a corner of the cafeteria, do not meet other kids’ eyes, rarely speak or respond; obviously they have no friends, and when I see them I just feel so very sorry for them. It seems that if they had one normal friend, someone to share with, or hug, they would not be so gloomy. Who knows why they turned out that way. And who knows what they are going to be/do in a few years. Most of them will just turn out to be quiet adults who mind their own business and don’t do any harm.</p>