<p>THere were stops along the way to this train wreck that could have stopped these murders…and some people tried…and one would have been to take the stalking much more seriouslly, and to not assume this was just a domestic dispute…domestic disputes seem to be on the bottom of the wrung when it comes to being treated with seriousness, assuming it was all over a girl, how trite was that of the police and the campus officials</p>
<p>As I said before, women need to step up and floow through when we feel harrassed, bet you there were more tha just the two this guy stalked</p>
<p>So to think there was nothing to be done, well there was</p>
<p>As well, some basic safety training, ie, how to jam a door, are imperative, this is not to blame the victims, but to learn</p>
<p>My first thought upon hearing about Cho’s behavior: social isolation, not making eye contact, and speaking in a whispered voice; was that he may have had Asperger’s. I have two nephews with Asperger’s, one of these boys was not diagnosed until the age of twelve, and neither make eye contact and one speaks only in a whisper. It would seem likely to me that a case of Asperger’s that was left untreated could send someone into a spiral of depression and possibly rage. I am not saying that people with Asperger’s are violent, just that in this case it may have been a precipatating factor.</p>
<p>“Actually, a significant study pubished last year reported a strong link between paternal age and autism (after statistical control for maternal age)”</p>
<p>That’s very interesting wisteria…thanks for the link. </p>
<p>My husband was 36 at the time of my son’s birth, so he doesn’t seem to fit the ‘over 40’ profile…but perhaps his age is a part of it. I also have an autistic great uncle who is severely affected but has the splinter skills of a savant.</p>
<p>Cho’s motivation/ diagnosis is one thing- but, certainly the copycats out there don’t have all these conditions. </p>
<p>This just posted, too. FYI
BREAKING NEWS
MSNBC
Updated: 8 minutes ago
YUBA CITY, Calif. - Authorities put all 36 schools in 12 Northern California school districts under lockdown Thursday as police searched for a man who claimed he was planning an armed attack that would “make Virginia Tech look mild.”</p>
<p>Sutter County Undersheriff J. Paul Parker told MSNBC-TV that the man, identified as Jeffery Thomas Carney, 28, telephoned his pastor and family members Wednesday night to say he had an automatic weapon, improvised explosive devices and poison.</p>
<p>Marian wrote: “If VT is like most colleges, only residents of a building can get into that building using their swipe cards.”</p>
<p>A local newspaper reporter took their teen on college tours last week, and one of the places was VT. She was surprised that the dorm they looked at was open during the day, and only locked at night (she asked, and this was what the student tour guide told her). This was on contrast to other dorms/other places that they looked at last week.</p>
<p>At the university I’m most familiar with (UMCP), not only do the swipe cards only work on your own dorm, they’re trying to figure out how to rig the elevators so that you can only get to your own floor.</p>
<p>"William Modzeleski is the director of the Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program for the U.S. Department of Education. With researchers from the Secret Service, he wrote the study on past school shootings (requires Adobe Acrobat) as well as the guide for schools on ways to prevent attacks. </p>
<p>His view is that many of these rare events can be prevented and have been prevented by teachers and other adults paying attention to students and intervening. It’s important to remember, he said, that the violent teenagers and young men usually work on their plans for a long time, and often let others know of their grievances.</p>
<p>“I don’t think we can say that 100 percent can be prevented, he told MSNBC.com. It is reducing the odds. We do feel because kids send off signals, we have a better likelihood of intervening. How many other cases are out there where counselors and teachers have intervened, where we have prevented these things from occurring?”</p>
<p>At WPI not only do you have to swipe to get in the door, but you have to swipe to get in and out of the stairwells. The tourguides said being stuck in a stairwell by mistake was a real pain in the neck. They’d also both been locked out of their rooms after showering - another annoyance. I think everywhere we visited you had to have a swipe card to your particular dorm.</p>
<p>My son has to swipe at the front door, swipe to get onto his hall, and swipe to get into his room. He says there is a way to get in that involves water, but I’m not going into that. The students have got it all figured out.</p>
<p>At one of my D’s schools, a swipe card is needed to get into the dorm, as well as into the stairwells…and of course, into the suite and again into the bedroom. </p>
<p>At my other D’s university, the cards do not “swipe”. A student ID must be presented to the security personnel (who are NOT students) at the entrance to every building, not only dorms. If you do not live in that dorm, you must be signed in as a guest by a person living in the dorm (and same with signing out) with security personnel.</p>
<p>uscd<em>uscla</em>dad…that is true at most schools. But that is not true at my younger child’s school which has security personnel check ID’s for each person who enters the building.</p>
<p>If someone is up to something evil, they will find a way around security checking ID’s. CHO could have just walked into classrooms to start his rampage. </p>
<p>I lived in a dorm with same features that soozievt describes. Do you know how often I got in with a group and did not show my ID! It happened more often than you would want to know, but perhaps it is more thorough today.</p>
<p>Northeastmom, while the system at my D’s college is not foolproof, it is tighter than what I had when I went to college. When I went to college, the “security” desk was manned by students and only in dorms. </p>
<p>At my kid’s school, every building requires ID’s and being on a guest list and all that jazz with uniformed security personnel doing the checking. This is in NYC which is a city that tightened security after 9/11 all over. When I also visited Penn with my other kid, they had something like this in place too, I believe. When visiting a dorm at Emerson, I had to show my driver’s license when I was a guest with my D visiting a current dorm resident and that dorm resident had to be with us when we arrived at the desk.</p>
<p>I cannot enter my kid’s dorm unless she is with me.I have to be signed in and out by her. Same with overnight guests. The overnight guest must show ID to the security officer and be accompanied by the current resident. The guest also must be accompanied by the current resident when checking back out of the dorm. </p>
<p>Same with when I enter the other buildings at her college. </p>
<p>At my D’s school, Cho could not have entered another dorm unless he was an invited guest who accompanied him in person at the security desk. Considering he seemed to not have friends, I am not sure who could have checked him in as a guest. He also would have had to have been checked back out by the guest at the security desk.</p>
<p>It is not foolproof, but is a bit more than you might be imagining from back in our college days. We can’t avoid these incidents but we can make them harder to carry out.</p>
<p>"By all accounts, in the last decade the number of students arriving on campuses with a history of mental illness has increased. According to the latest survey conducted in 2005 by the American College Health Association, four out of 10 college students reported having “felt so depressed it’s difficult to function” during the prior 12 months. One in 10 had "seriously considered suicide…</p>
<p>On campuses, counselors have worked hard to keep up with the increasing demands. Each year Robert Gallagher, an adjunct professor at the University of Pittsburgh, conducts a survey of university counseling center directors. In his latest survey, done in 2006, 95 percent of center directors reported the number of students who arrive at college who are already taking psychiatric medication has increased in recent years. On average, the number of students being hospitalized for psychological problems has increased, from an average of 5 students per school in 2001 to 8 students per school in 2006.When it comes to suicides, the survey suggests that often counselors have little opportunity to intervene. Out of 154 reported suicides at the colleges in the survey, 127 of the students-or 82 percent-had no contact with the school counseling office prior to taking their life…</p>
<p>For mental health professionals, the Cho case also provides a grim reminder of the limitations of their ability to help the mentally ill from harming themselves–and others…"</p>
<p>Please excuse the mess ups in my post #836. I had edited it and then none of the edits showed up. Then I went to redo all the edits. As I was doing that, my kid called with good news (hey both kids called with good news today, so it is a good day!..I only wish I could say the same for the VT families ) Anyway, in rereading the post, I see all the mistakes in wording, and I have tried to edit it again as the edit button still works but when I go to edit, the post doesn’t show up as it appears in full on the forum…but just the original first version. It is messed up. I am not sure the tech problem!</p>
<p>I agree that what soozie describes (I think her D’s school is NYU) is tighter, security-wise, than many schools. That’s great, but having to go through all this rigamarole to visit a friend, EVEN IF YOU YOURSELF GO TO THE SAME SCHOOL, doesn’t strike me as a pleasant environment to live in. In NYC, it’s absolutely worth it, because it’s an urban, non contiguous campus, and all kinds of weirdos could come in off the street. </p>
<p>We’ve not yet reached an era, though, when that sort of thing is deemed necessary in Blacksburg, VA. Maybe we are getting there though. At my small suburban LAC (I graduated in '03), we had to swipe our cards, but they got us into all dorms, not just your own. It was great to be able to visit a friend without them having to come and let you in. Study breaks (movies/activities/food) would often be held in dorm lounges that were open to all students, not just the kids in the dorm, and I’m glad no-one had to stand there and let people in-- it would have made a casual gathering feel like a big “thing.” However, I wouldn’t be surprised if they changes to a stricter system sometime in the future-- sad. It would just make the place seem that much less homey to me.</p>
) Anyway, in rereading the post, I see all the mistakes in wording, and I have tried to edit it again as the edit button still works but when I go to edit, the post doesn’t show up as it appears in full on the forum…but just the original first version. It is messed up. I am not sure the tech problem!</p>