<p>SJCM-
The shooter was 8 yrs old when his family moved here, and when his father went to work at a dry cleaners. It is highly unlikely that he could have suffered any secondary effects of the neurotoxins from the dry cleaners. Besides, his abberent behaviors were reoprted by his family even before they moved to the US</p>
<p>I just wanted to mention that at both of my kids school (same as soozievt), the security guards will also take the guest’s driver’s license (or other ID card) and hold onto it until the individual returns (with the dorm resident) to sign that person out. Also, at Fordham (LC), if dorm residents fail to sign out their guests, the student who attends the school ends up getting fined. The security guards both at NYU and Fordham LC actually take the time to stop each and every student along with their guest(s) to sign in/out. Also, this doesn’t just take place in the dorms, but also in EVERY University building!</p>
<p>“many of these kids that were shot and survived, or in the room where the shootings happened, and survived, are majors or minors in that department. How will they finish their degrees? I would think it would be hard to go back into that building, let alone the classroom.”</p>
<p>The studies that I’ve seen on post traumatic stress syndrome indicate that the sooner that one returns to the scene of the trauma, the quicker the emotional recovery.</p>
<p>Still, if my child or I had been there during the shooting, I wouldn’t want to ever return. However, it does seem that if they return, they’d be more likely to get the support that they need on that campus than among strangers for whom they may be an object of curiosity.</p>
<p>thanks jym-thought they had been in the business in Korea…</p>
<p>At a 11:00 cdt today students, faculty, staff, and visitors, some wearing VT garb, others wearing combinations of burnt orange and maroon stood in silence for a minute while the UW-Madison carillon rang its bells 32 times in honor of the VT dead.</p>
<p>It’s interesting that at Cornell’s memorial service, which was described in detail in one of these threads yesterday, the references were to 33 deaths, but Wisconsin chose to memorialize 32.</p>
<p>I suspect this difference reflects very deliberate choices, and I don’t really know which is more appropriate. </p>
<p>SouthJerseyChessMom, there are news reports that say that the family owned a bookstore in Korea.</p>
<p>Thanks Marian, just in from a walk in some sunshine here in the East, had quiet time for thoughts-
Reflected on society today, and it occurred to me how horrified the parents were in the 60’s when the Kent State campus killing happened. Then it was the government who fired those shots. Don’t want to open the pandora’s box on that, but just imagine that with today’s media/ technology.
All so sad.</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.”</p>
<p>You can’t be serious.</p>
<p>Just ran into some friends whos grandson is a senior at VT. I am getting this second hand, so can’t vought for its accuracy, but they said the studentw were going to be offered to come back to school to finish out the semester or to thake their grades as they are as a final semester grade, if they chose not to return tomorrow. They also said that the Engineering classroom building was closed and would not be reopened at this time. Again- this is second hand. Has anyone spoken to students sho can vouch for this?</p>
<p>jym, this was on the news as early as this AM…I believe this to be the case.</p>
<p>Shoebox10, a VT student, posted this earlier.</p>
<p>VT has provided students with info about the end of the semester plans, as follows:
The Virginia Tech faculty, staff, and students are overwhelmed and saddened by recent tragic events. The faculty are concerned for the education of our students, as well as their physical and mental well-being. We realize that various students will react differently to these events. Because of this Virginia Tech will offer students a number of ways to complete the Spring 2007 semester. This procedure is in effect for all sites and locations where Virginia Tech classes are being taught.</p>
<p>Classes will resume on Monday, April 23, 2007. The first day of class will involve broad ranging discussion of these events from various perspectives. There will also be discussion of the options, which are available to students concerning their completion of the semester. Information about the options will also be made available online. Classes will be continued with the elimination of one week of work. Students will have the option of requesting, on a course by course basis, that the semester grade be based on the faculty evaluation of:</p>
<ul>
<li>Materials which have already been submitted for grade prior to April 16, or</li>
<li>The already submitted material plus any other assigned material which the student wishes to submit for grade, or</li>
<li>The material that would have been submitted for grade upon regular completion of the course.</li>
</ul>
<p>Implementation of this procedure will be accomplished in a manner consistent with university academic policy. Existing policies related to other academic issues remain in effect. Flexibility and attention to the needs of the students is a high priority. The deans fully support the implementation and will be supported by the Office of the Provost.</p>
<p>In support of their emotional well-being, it is recommended that students continue to participate in class activities as part of the Virginia Tech community. We encourage students to continue to take advantage of all learning opportunities. Students will be permitted to defer a decision on which option to exercise until the last day of classes. The Course Withdrawal Policy is also extended until the last day of classes. The options for completing course work allow for students to remove themselves from the campus for all or part of the remainder of the semester without penalty to their course completion, or academic eligibility.</p>
<p>The university has decided that those students whose lives were taken will be awarded posthumously the academic degree for which they were enrolled effective Spring 2007. These degrees will be awarded during the college, graduate school, or departmental commencement exercises, where such degrees are usually awarded.</p>
<p>Questions regarding implementation of the procedures as outlined should be directed to the academic associate dean of the college in which the student is enrolled.</p>
<p>Mark G. McNamee
University Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs</p>
<p>The first part is true, and I do not know what is happening with engineering but Norris Hall is closed for the rest of the semester. Finishing out the semester at this point largely just entails taking finals I think, by the time classes officially get underway again. However perhaps in light of things some professors will choose less traditional ways of final evaluations in order to get grades that are the best reflection of what went on most of the semester. </p>
<p>Initial accounts seem to indicate that Cho was not quite “normal” early on, before they even moved to America. I would imagine in many of these cases there is a genetic predisposition, a trigger, and then it was exacerbated by environmental conditions (and I do believe he was severely mentally ill in some way, I have no sympathy really, but realistically I do not believe anyone who even approaches the definition of mentally “normal” would do such a thing. That’s ridiculous). I suspect that yes, there probably was something, somewhere, that someone could have done. But saying that is really different than saying anyone knowingly acted in a grossly negligent fashion…hindsight is always 20/20. Every time something like this happens, I really hope that people will learn, that we will largely see something, there will be change, but it seems like people just want to deny it and say “he just made a bad choice and was a cold blooded killer.” I think that’s a really, really dangerous line of thinking and isn’t going to prevent something like this from happening in the future. I realize no one wants to give him any sympathy, neither do I frankly, but you have to recognize when someone is severely disturbed, this is possibly as abnormal as it gets, it’s contrary to survival instinct as a species. We can’t just throw up our hands and say “not our problem, the mentally disturbed have free will.” Well technically, but the problem with that is typically the mentally ill don’t realize they are mentally ill, or they probably wouldn’t be mentally ill. It’s a little paradoxical. Hindsight is 20/20 but I would hate for people to be blind to the lessons.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info soozie, mcmom and princedog.
I’ve been preoccupied momentarily with the news of the gunman barricaded in at NASA (Johnson Space Center) in Houston. Just got off the phone with s. in Houston. He does not know anyone working there, and he and all his friends are safe on campus.</p>
<p>As an aside, since it has been pretty well established that the Duke lacrosse accuser has a mental health history of a different kind, does anyone think/hope that in light of recent events, that she will be <em>strongly</em> encouraged/directed to treatment? While her issues were indirectly destructive, and certainly not to the degree of the VT shooter, her issues are troublesome to her, and did cause damage to others.</p>
<p>"The family of Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho told The Associated Press on Friday that they feel “hopeless, helpless and lost,” and “never could have envisioned that he was capable of so much violence.” “Our family is so very sorry for my brother’s unspeakable actions. It is a terrible tragedy for all of us,” the family said. </p>
<p>The statement was issued by Cho’s sister, Sun-Kyung Cho, on her behalf and that of her family. She works as a contractor for a State Department office that oversees billions of dollars in American aid for Iraq."</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8OKIFLG0&show_article=1[/url]”>http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8OKIFLG0&show_article=1</a></p>
<p>I feel sorry for the parents and sister. Their grief must be unbearable. I don’t know how they’ll go on. Their grief is not only about loss but about guilt and shame. Who do THEY turn to?</p>
<p>You are right, soozievt. The family members are indeed victims in this as well. I think I read that they are under protective custody right now, which may mean that they’ve been threatened themselves. From all accounts this was a hard working, close and involved family. The sister is a brilliant and articulate Princeton grad who works for the State Department. Regardless, I believe there is no way they could have possibly predicted this and the fact that they feel guilt and shame in no way means that any of this is their fault . My heart goes out to them as to all the family members who have lost loved ones through this tragedy.</p>
<p><a href=“http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070420/ap_on_re_us/virginia_tech_shooting[/url]”>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070420/ap_on_re_us/virginia_tech_shooting</a></p>
<p>Edited to include the link</p>
<p>I am sorry to post this sequentially, but, earlier in the thread someone referenced Stephen King - he weighs in here:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20036014,00.html[/url]”>http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20036014,00.html</a></p>
<p>Baloney.</p>
<p>That boy was suspended from middle school for a MONTH for making a death list of his classmates. Do you know how crazy a kid has to be to get suspended from middle school for a MONTH?</p>
<p>He was diagnosed as autistic as an 8 year old–and mainstreamed anyway.</p>
<p>He had serious and extreme speech and social difficulties yet was passed from mainstream middle school to mainstream high school to mainstream residential university by an overly deferential US system and overly ambitious parents.</p>
<p>This is mainstreaming Americans with Disabilities gone wrong with tragic tragic consequences. This is willful denial of the severity of that boy’s illness–both by the parents, the sister, (not the Korean relatives or the Korean pastor apparently) and the Virginia public school system–from primary through university level.</p>
<p>I understand the blindness on the family’s part–it is all too common in families grappling with mental illness. I don’t accept their innocence, however. They are partly responsible for the outcome.</p>
<p>cheers -
I have not read that Cho was suspended from middle school or diagnosed as autistic. I may have missed something - where does this information appear?</p>
<p>Soozie, yes, his family counts as additional victims imo. A horror to live with.</p>