April 16 (Plus One)
Posted by Chap at 4/17/2008 10:05 AM and is filed under uncategorized 
I didn't post yesterday about VA Tech and the one-year anniversary of the April 16th tragedy for a couple reasons: 1) I didn't know quite what to say and 2) I figured I'd wait til today and see what everyone else said. Maybe I'd steal a good idea. But no such luck.
April 16th, 2007 is one of the days that every Virginian remembers where they were and what they were doing when the reports started trickling in from Blacksburg.
The tragedy and its aftermath represented a weird confluence of events involving mental health, guns, higher education, immigration, privacy and other issues that we see every day in the state legislature.
Hindsight is 20/20 and no one could have foreseen the scope of what happened.
Having said that, there were so many predictors to what happened. And yet we failed (the state and its employees) to prevent this from happening. This failure implicates all of us. It is better to admit it and proceed forward than to pretend it didn't happen.
Here are some of the things we know now.
We know that Mr. Cho had been identified by his college English teachers as someone with psychotic tendencies. And nothing happened.
We know that Mr. Cho had been the subject of a civil commitment proceeding due to his behavior and harassment of fellow students. And no one tracked his status.
We know that Mr. Cho was on medication and under tight rein at Westfields High School. And this info never was transmitted to Tech.
We know that Mr. Cho had a history of mental instability, documented in court records, and yet could legally purchase two firearms with significant capacity.
We know that two Tech students were killed early that morning -- and their bodies discovered by 7:30 a.m. -- and yet college administrators waited almost two hours to inform students or order any preventative actions. In contrast, the local school system had "locked down" before 9 a.m., a few minutes before the second set of shootings.
All of these facts are gleaned from the commission headed by Gerald Massengill, former head of the State Police, which did a superb job in collecting information in a dispassionate fashion. They are not disputed or novel. They are not meant to punish or embarrass anyone.
April 16th, 2007 was a day that no one can forget. We can't change what happened that day. We can only remember. And as a state we can remember to do better.
It is chilling to know that Mr. Cho's family did nothing to either protect Mr. Cho nor to protect the people he came in contact with.
Yes, but understandable. Their only recourse was to go to governmental authorities, and immigrants, which I understand they were, come from environments where going to government - for anything - usually creates more problems than it solves. In other words, Korean police are not nice people, and that is true of police in most countries from which people emigrate to the U. S. In those countries you rely on your own resources, your family, your village, perhaps your church, but never on the government. It takes a generation or two to change that mindset when they come to America.
Chap,
You could sponsor or support a bill to allow properly trained/permitted students with CHP's to protect themselves from maniacs like Cho while they are on campus. I'm a 30 year old responsible adult, why cannot I be trusted with my firearm just because I stepped over an invisible boundary line and entered a college classroom?
‘‘Laws that forbid the carrying of arms... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.’’
— Jefferson's "Commonplace Book," 1774-1776, quoting from On Crimes and Punishment, by criminologist Cesare Beccaria, 1764
I am disgusted that money had to be paid to the families, but I guess we need to know the dollar value of our loved ones. I know several people that I think may be bi-polar, who should I tell? The family had a responsibility and that is just where it lies. Lets all take mental health test prior to enrollment to schools, drivers licenses,credit cards, making reservations or any kind, airlines, dinner, weddings etc. Today, how do you stop this? Best we all take responsibility for our actions and those we love.
Hear, hear! The mentally aberrant have always been with us and always will be. It is impossible to protect ourselves fully from them, and in truth, most are harmless. They are not criminals. So how do we propose to determine, in advance, those with the capacity for violence? And having done so, what next? Do we lock them all up for being "potentially violent?" No easy answers and never will be. Best to accept that life is not fair and relies in part upon simple luck. That said, life surely would be simpler and fairer without "ambulance chasers!"
Establishing Student Assistance Programs in our public schools are so important in identifying troubled students and insuring that they do not slip through the cracks.