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<p>Somebody refresh my memory. Why is again that that hollow point ammunition is available to any Cho walking in off the street?</p>
<p>SoosieVt:</p>
<p>Yes, he had a roommate. He didn’t speak on one to his roommate since August, not even responding to a “good morning”.</p>
<p>After watching those videos this is the act of a cold- blooded killer. He was very much deliberate, and planned well in advance this slaughter. No crazy person would do this. A cold-blooded killer would. Therefore no sympathies for him, he was not crazy. Just an angry, evil person.</p>
<p>Not crazy? Are you kidding? The guy clearly has problems connecting with people on a normal, human basis. He never talked to roommates or others. He can’t even come off as sincere in his last message to the camera. There was so little emotion in his voice. From the words you’d expect it to be dripping with rage. Did you notice he wasn’t even looking at the camera when he was talking? Only when he was holding the gun. That speaks volumes.</p>
<p>Yes, not crazy but a purely narcisstic person filled with hate and anger.</p>
<p>He was nuts. Pure and simple. You can’t find a motive -other than his mental illness, for an act committed by someone who is nuts.</p>
<p>hey did anyone here, the guy (Cho) mailed videos to NBC. I don’t know if anyone of you all have seen it or not but you should check it out.</p>
<p>A friend wanted me to post this while I was online finding out information for my son about colleges. So here it goes. It is a solutiion for the colleges to beable to send text messages to thousands of people at one time instantaneously. This could have helped to let the students know what was going on at any time. </p>
<p>A website that can save lives!</p>
<p>There is a free website that can text message thousands of people at once <a href=“http://www.lolatext.com%5B/url%5D”>www.lolatext.com</a>. </p>
<pre><code>In lieu of the tragedy at Virginia Tech. A group of computer programmers put together a website that can save lives. They originally put it together for kids to communicate to each other in bulk but seeing how useful it could be on a large scale as a warning system, they updated it to be used for other purposes.
</code></pre>
<p>We do not charge any fee for any service on this website and do not expect anything from this except to help!</p>
<p>How it works</p>
<pre><code>A college administrator can enter all the cell numbers from their data base for the students and other college personnel at the beginning of the year (or now). These numbers are then stored permanently and can be edited and updated. In the case of an emergency an administrator can access all the numbers through Lolatext.com to send alerts immediately. Because of what happened at Virginia Tech we think this could be a useful tool in saving lives in the future. It can be used for other alerts such as tornado warnings, fire, flood or just to inform people of school or business closings. This system is more efficient then e mailing because most people are carrying their cell phones when they are not near a computer. Lolatext.com is FREE and available now. Please let college, high school , business administrators as well as government agencies know about this website asap.
</code></pre>
<p>I saw part of his video on the news tonight before I shut the TV off.</p>
<p>Cheers-makes me wonder if your post does indeed indicate what I said in an earlier post–parents expect the schools and now colleges to raise their kids? I hope your student was able to cope with such a situation freshman year. I suppose a lot of the incident you describe has to do with the fact that it is a public institution. We saw a lot of these issues in public school during the elementary years. Students were sent to an alternative school for a couple of weeks and then allowed back to the regular classroom, while parents of these kids dismissed the behavior as “boys will be boys!” I have very conflicted feelings about this whole issue of just what should have or could have been done. I suppose that unfortunately we have learned a lesson at the expense of other’s lives. Let’s hope that positive changes can be made at college campuses as I truly believe that college students are at the most risk for problems and issues because of the stress and pressure a college presents.</p>
<p>Why do they continue to show the pictures and video of this sick individual. This is exactly what he wanted. ENOUGH!! I couldn’t even bear to watch 5 minutes, but in changing channels that seems to be the only thing the networks want to show. There have already been threats at other colleges, and someone will eventually try to break this man’s “record” for the “most deadly shooting spree in American History”. The news organizations don’t have to show these images. It does not help the students at VT in their grief or in their effort to move forward.</p>
<p>No, our incident was at a private university. My son survived the incident because we stepped in and insisted he separate himself when he wanted to attempt to ‘handle it’. He is savvy and he has handled a whole bunch–but I had a one warning system for this psycho roommate–the slightest misstep and we were going to take drastic action. The kid did something and we did take immediate action which did involve throwing money at the problem.</p>
<p>We also insisted the administration take some responsiblity for the aftermath–which they did.</p>
<p>Besides the willfully blind Cho parents, I think Westfield High School has some culpability. Who wrote the college recommendations for that kid? His high school classmates say he wasn’t able to speak–a pattern which continued into college. His college suite mates were unable to make eye contact with him. They never heard him utter a word. They were never warned in any way about any of his disturbing behavior.</p>
<p>As I said, this is a civil rights matter.</p>
<p>Edward Falco, his drama writing teacher at Va Tech said </p>
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<p>Knock knock, Westfield? You sent a mute kid to Va Tech? That kid should have gone to a college with a heavy therapeutic component–if he went to college at all.</p>
<p>Where indeed were the parents during all the other warning signs – from high school THROUGH college – that obviously so many others saw?</p>
<p>Had they been overseas I would have more understanding of their psychological distance from the situation – or at least their relative ignorance of it.</p>
<p>While I am very supportive of immigrant assimilation programs, this situation is of a different category, and involves universal parental responsibility & reaction & intervention, regardless of culture, regardless of any language barriers. Surely they have pairs of eyes and ears. </p>
<p>(This didn’t happen overnight.)</p>
<p>I don’t want to get into psychoanalysis, but with an older sister at Princeton, I can’t imagine he was the apple of his parents’ eye settling for the state u.</p>
<p>The biggest frustration for me is how much the English department tried to help the kid and how the bureacracy couldn’t connect the dots between the police reports, the psych evaluation, and the English professors waving big red flags. Seems like the efficacy of the Dean’s office might be in question. You can’t even blame it on the kid falling through the cracks and not coming to the attention of the student support organization.</p>
<p>"Besides the willfully blind Cho parents, I think Westfield High School has some culpability. Who wrote the college recommendations for that kid? "</p>
<p>I’m confused. Willfully blind? I don’t think we know that much about the family. Are we blaming the parents because they should have known their son was going to kill people one day? And does V Tech even require a college recommendation? Many public schools don’t, just routine school info about grading, etc. I’m really not comfortable with these kinds of accusations against people and institutions. I understand people get upset and emotional about these things, but I’m surprised by some of the assumptions being made and the blame being placed here. I guess armchair quarterbacking isn’t just for football.</p>
<p>Given HIPPA regulations, if you are an “adult”, your health information is protected. If Cho got a mental health evaluation by a clinician after the age of 21 (or younger in some states), such information is protected and informing parents would be against the law if not approved by the patient. The only time when such information is made to 2nd parties is when the clinician feels that the person is at risk of harming another. I don’t know college regulations, but I think parents are primarily notified for “disciplinary” actions and not health related issues… and, although this guy raised alarm bells, as no such actions were taken against him by the school or the police, his parents may not have been contacted about his mental issues which were deemed to be “outpatient” by the police examiner.</p>
<p>This person clearly suffered from some type of schizophrenia, which isn’t one disease but rather encompasses a spectrum of disorders that share similar features. It’s textbook to have schizophrenia manifest acutely in young adulthood. In Cho’s case, some of his symptoms are classic: borderline and anti-social personality traits, delusions of persecution, and disorganized speech. It’s rare for schizophrenia to lead to violence… it’s estimated that about half of the chronically homeless are schizophrenic. Also, although “crazy”, it is very possible for such individuals to be “strategic” with some aspects of their actions. I also think it’s important to point out that there is one distinguishing characteristic between this and Columbine… in the latter case, those 2 worked together which would be unheard of in schizophrenia and related diseases. For that reason, while both tragic, Columbine is more sinister in my opinion.</p>
<p>As an Asian American, I feel mixed about bringing Cho’s background into this discussion. The reasons why not are pretty obvious. However, Asian groups (like all groups) relate to health and especially mental health differently due to cultural issues… and it’s too easy to whitewash important differences away for fear of offending people (HIV was a predominantly “white” and “gay” disease until Magic Johnson forced the issue out in the Black community). It’s hard for any family to accept that a member (especially a child) suffers from a psychiatric diagnosis (as the symptoms are not physical) but among many Asian groups, either in Asia or America, acceptance and recognition of such disorders are less accepted, openly discussed and fully treated and this is well documented in the medical literature. I don’t know whether this added dimension had any bearing on the parents’ perceived “inaction” (or the parents were aware about a diagnosis at all), but I’m sure that this tragedy will now bring mental health and variations in race to the center of attention.</p>
<p>irishforever - Post #750</p>
<p>I agree. The media should not show the menacing pictures of Cho. He just imitated the behavior of Harris and Klebold at Columbine High. I hope there will be no copycats later.</p>
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<p>Actually (from a health care provider), your patient health information is ‘protected’ regardless of age. And as long as you are a legal adult (which is 18 nationwide to the best of my knowledge), your parents cannot access the information without your consent. So if his mental evaluation occurred when he was in college, it is protected from his parents.</p>
<p>cheers -
Penn State, which is our state university, does not require teacher recommendations, so I assume this is true of many other state universities. His high school had over 3000 students, so I doubt his counselor knew him very well even if he or she provided a recommendation. </p>
<p>Interestedad -
Your comment about Cho’s parents favoring his sister because she was admitted to a more prestigious university than him was totally unnecessary. You have no knowledge of whether or not this was the case. Do your acquaintances love their children who are not academic stars less than a more accomplished sibling?</p>
<p>coolweather,</p>
<p>True, but that’s how news seems to portray these type of people… any type of criminal or accused person is shown in the worst light possible.</p>
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<p>Virginia Tech does not require teacher recommendations, and its guidance counselor report asks for factual information only, not a paragraph-style evaluation of the student. So the application process did not provide an opportunity for high school personnel to provide their thoughts on the student.</p>
<p>But even if the process did provide such an opportunity, would a guidance counselor really make an effort to deny a student an opportunity for further education just because the student seems unusually shy or antisocial?</p>