43 Comments Add your own

• 1. Cory  |  April 16th, 2007 at 10:11 am

  I wonder how many Virginia-area news directors were here at RTNDA in Vegas and now scrambling to get on a flight back home.

• 2. Z  |  April 16th, 2007 at 10:13 am

  I wonder where the nets are. Not one has taken over the network, but for Littleton, everyone broke in. Strange.

• 3. Cory  |  April 16th, 2007 at 10:15 am

  They’ve done special reports, but nothing sustained yet.

• 4. Brian  |  April 16th, 2007 at 10:27 am

  I understand the novelty of i-reporters (on CNN) and similar, but I would hope that the cable news networks - and news folks in general - start to look more closely at the value of the user contributed news. It does not replace actual reporting, in fact it really isn’t adding much at the moment to the coverage at all. Moreover, it gives the anchors free reign to speculate about what they are seeing. MSNBC has done the best so far, getting real people on the ground to talk with them and getting Pete Williams, their Justice Department correspondent, to do real, indepedent report with his law enforcement contacts to begin to clarify some details.

• 5. Nick Fure  |  April 16th, 2007 at 10:58 am

  abc cbs and nbc have done special reports but not the fox broadcasting network my fox station only runs a crawl at the bottom of the screen

• 6. thedetroitchannel  |  April 16th, 2007 at 11:07 am

  since much of the web audience is defined by search, this tragedy is a perfect example how you avoid letting google define your audience:

  which rings a bell Roanoke or nbc12, Roanoke or wsls, Roanoke or wral, Roanoke or wvec?

  roanoke or theraleighchannel are a toss up.

  the rest are a crapshoot.

• 7. thedetroitchannel  |  April 16th, 2007 at 11:17 am

  oh, and about the slap at “user contributed news” : bet i could give you a better first-hand account of the three car pile-up that happened on the freeway right in front of me this morning than the “6 figure face” that will be reporting on the news tonight.

  i’ll bet the same goes for those “on scene” at this tragedy.

• 8. Z  |  April 16th, 2007 at 11:24 am

  I’m sending Twitter updates as mini-breaking news alerts. It’s a bit mixed…Twitter doesn’t always update immediately, and it went down just after noon. But it’s another path, as it were.

• 9. Z  |  April 16th, 2007 at 11:26 am

  Also strange: The first shooting happened at 7:15, but the first I saw this on AP was 10:21. Did this move on VA wires sooner, or was everyone in the dark on this?

• 10. Rob  |  April 16th, 2007 at 1:49 pm

  ABC has been most frugal with coverage so far, though when they did break in for the president’s comments at 1 p.m. PT Charles Gibson was at the helm.

  The other nets had second-stringers Russ Mitchell at CBS and Anne Curry helming things for NBC.

  Oops. Actually as I was typing all three nets broke in again.

  As for the shootings this morning, AP wires shows the first alert crossed AP at 7:20 a.m. Pacific Time. At 8:13 a.m. PT they reported the gunman had been taken into custody. At 9:23 a.m. PT the head of campus police says 22 are now dead, including the gunman.

  Obviously there was some initial confusion about the suspect’s arrest and there was a lapse of time of about two hours between the dorm shooting and the engineering building shootings. I checked for updates on the web from home at 9 a.m. and one person was dead. I got to work at 9:30 and there were 21 dead, 28 wounded.

• 11. Ted Turner  |  April 16th, 2007 at 2:30 pm

  I can’t stomach CNN with Betty and Don on. Awful. When did CNN get to be so bad.

• 12. Shooter family identified  |  April 17th, 2007 at 2:35 pm

  Shooter home address
  Cho, Sung T more info
  14713 Truitt Farm Dr
  Centreville, VA 20120-5411
  (703) 815-8215

  Neighbourhood
  Shash, Abudulrhman 703.803-8332
  Map 14715 Truitt Farm Dr
  Centreville, VA 20120
  Abudulrhman Shash
  14715 Truitt Farm Dr
  Centreville, VA 20120-5411
  703-803-8332

  Marshall A & Doris Main
  14708 Truitt Farm Dr
  Centreville, VA 20120-5407
  (703) 266-8564
  Main, Marshall L. 703.266-8564
  Map 14708 Truitt Farm Dr
  Centreville, VA 20120

• 13. Chris  |  April 17th, 2007 at 3:06 pm

  to the idiot who put the shooters family adress on the web:

  what do you ant to happen? are 32 people not enough? do you want the family strung up on a tree in good old virgina fashion? why don´t you put every marines adress on the web who has kiled innocent people in wars all over the world???
  this is a tragedy beyond belief. no more needs to be said. would you post the adress if the shooter was from a good ole southern family?

• 14. Aberman  |  April 17th, 2007 at 4:09 pm

  “Loner” - that’s what the media is calling him, and this shows how much society misunderstands the true nature of these psychologically troubled high school/college kids like Cho. If these misunderstandings and generalizations continue, then I’m afraid more people like Cho will be forced into action.

• 15. Dave  |  April 17th, 2007 at 4:44 pm

  Still love those guns, Virginia?

  Ready to admit that it’s madness for any psycho to be able to saunter into a gun shop and acquire firepower capable of killing 32 innocents?

  Feel different now that the blood is the blood of so many of your most promising young people?

  You’ve been shrugging for decades as illegal guns from your state plague our city, killing and maiming and terrorizing New Yorkers by the thousands, at one point comprising 47% of the guns our cops recovered.

  You even yukked it up with a “Bloomberg Gun GiveAway” raffle at a gun shop that sold at least 22 guns used in crimes in New York.

  You went into a tizzy when Mayor Bloomberg sued some of your gun shops after undercover agents made fraudulent “straw purchases.”

  Your idea of gun control has been to pass a law making it illegal for undercover agents like those Bloomberg sent South to make such buys.

  You seemed to think it was no big deal when an aide to your junior U.S. senator got caught carrying an automatic pistol into the Capitol, you having voted Sen. James Webb into office as an avowed opponent of gun control.

  You had a big debate this year about whether Virginia Tech was wrong to discipline a student who was caught carrying a licensed pistol to class.

  Never mind that a Virginia gun license is not half as hard to get as a driving license.

  Never mind that there are so many guns lying around that an escaped jailbird managed to get hold of one and kill a cop and a security guard at the edge of the Virginia Tech campus at the start of the school year.

  Yesterday, the shooting was in the heart of the campus, which suddenly felt like the bleeding heart of the whole nation.

  We certainly have enough parents in New York who know all too well what the families of Virginia Tech will be suffering.

  We also have cause anew to give thanks for the bravery of Auxiliary Police Officers Eugene Marshalik and Nicholas Pekearo, who died stopping a crazed gunman in Greenwich Village in March.

  We have reason to remember Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly saying that the two brave auxiliaries and the equally brave cops who then killed the gunman may well have prevented a massacre. Our psycho certainly had enough bullets.

  When we listened to yesterday’s gunshots as recorded by a cell phone video, we assumed the police we saw holding back had been ordered to watch the perimeter while other cops charged through the chained doors toward the gunfire. We hoped they had not hesitated as the cops did during the massacre at the Columbine High School in 1999.

  We replayed yesterday’s video and listened to those gunshots again, each the hyper-real sound of a gun doing exactly what it is engineered to do no matter who is holding it, no matter who it is pointed at, be they on a New York street or in Norris Hall at Virginia Tech.

  Today, Virginia Tech will hold a public convocation in the wake of the carnage. President Bush has said he will attend, but his spokeswoman assures us he remains a firm believer in the right to bear arms.

  Also expected to be there is Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, who is returning early from an overseas trip. He recently signed Bill 2106, the anti-Bloomberg legislation that forbids undercover agents from making straw purchases.

  Not even the worst campus massacre in American history is about to stop Bob Moates Sports Shop of Midlothian, Va., from going ahead with its big Bloomberg Gun GiveAway. The winner will receive a Para-Ordinance Model 1911 .45 automatic, silver and no less deadly than the black pistol a witness says the Virginia Tech psycho used. The 1911 is part of the company’s new line of “Gun Rights” pistols, which carry the guarantee the company will donate $25 to the National Rifle Association for every one sold.

  “The drawing is April 19,” a man at Moates said yesterday.

  No wonder some of our cops up here in New York say the bumper stickers down there should really read, “Virginia Is for Gun Lovers.”

  What do you say now, Virginia?

  mdaly@nydailynews.com

• 16. Anonymous  |  April 17th, 2007 at 5:12 pm

  I can’t believe the idiocy of putting the family’s name and contact info. on the web. Whoever did that is one sick sob and should be arrested immediately.

• 17. Anonymous  |  April 17th, 2007 at 6:37 pm

  you are truly a perpetual son-of-a bitch for posting his families contact info. grow up.

• 18. Angry  |  April 17th, 2007 at 9:30 pm

  To all those stating “See, see, guns bad”; ie Dave. It wasn’t a gun, it was a crazy foreign national. Could have been a crazy ‘national’, makes no difference. Grow up, I don’t infringe in your right not to bear arms, don’t infringe on mine when it is a infinitessimal piece of a percentage of the population using them for evil.

  That being said, I have three comments.

  1: Shame on the Campus — “Police”– for sitting outside at their cars with guns drawn looking at the building, even if they didn’t arrive until just before the end. You are paid to protect and serve - if you can’t get in, drive a car through the door and run in, putting your life at risk to bring the shooter down, it’s your job. I pay you to do that, if you don’t wanna, work at Shoneys.

  2: Shame on the 3 college weenies (can’t call them males or men) who let a 70 year old, brave teacher hold the door to the classroom while you jumped out of a window. I hope the last look you had at your teacher haunts you forever, you should be severely beaten, repeatedly, and your mother and father smacked for raising you that way. I would bet that when it is all said and done, there were at least 10 boys and men of ‘age’ listening to the screams and crying of female students and teachers. I am not a hero, I am a 40+, 5′5″ but I have been in several situations that included guns and danger; one, a bar brawl that led to the parking lot) that included a couple bikers and 2 handguns and I rushed the guy holding the weapon so my friend would not get shot, so yes, the average Joe can make a difference. It was one lone, scrawny foreign national. Better to take a bullet in the arm or leg surprising him than losing a fellow student or teacher. Krikey, the ‘male’ students just sucked. Unbelievable.

  3: To all of the people who believe you can shut down a facility of that size and make it secure - there is only one way. Being in a public school or building is a privilege not a right. The University has only the responsibility to do what is reasonable to ensure students and employees are protected from harm, nothing more. The only method to lock down and secure any facility of that size is martial law; ie, having a 20′ high electrified fence with cameras and dogs and perhaps 4 entry/points with id to get in and out as well as full searches. Since many of you don’t want martial law or that level of security, stop second guessing, stop the stupid lawsuits that are about to ensue that will raise cost and make it impossible for 10’s of thousands of future students to matriculate for the unfortunate and sad demise of 32. The needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few, that is simply life.

  To the family and friends of the 32, you are in my thoughts and prayers.

  Sincere Regards.

• 19. John Norse  |  April 17th, 2007 at 10:55 pm

  Not a shot was fired by police, safely outside stalling while each shot could be heard taking a life.
  No one was brave enough to rush the shooter and save lives. The timid women and soft scared old men on the
  Campus police hiding behind trees should be jailed for standing around and allowing murder. College administration should be jailed for neglegence.
  Hollywood violent movies and especially violent video games must be stopped or america will devour itself with violence. Having guns for 200 years was fine when the people werent sick, owning a gun is fine if you are normal. Only US citizens should be allowed to own a gun.

• 20. Anonymous  |  April 17th, 2007 at 11:23 pm

  I can´t take my nail clippers on a flight fom Charleston to Atlanta, but I can go into any store and buy a gun? Hmmm… interesting.Righ it was a “crazy foreign student” and not the guns that killed. How thick do you have to be to state something like that??? If the “crazy foreign student” and all the crazies who have gone on rampages were not allowed to purchase guns, I don ´t think he have strangled 32 people to death.

• 21. Anonymous  |  April 18th, 2007 at 2:35 am

  Oh my God! How does one deal with an atrocity of this magnitude? Especially when one feels somehow complicit for sharing the shooter’s ethnicity? Knowing full well that any sense of contrition, remorse or shame won’t bring back a single perished soul nor do a damn thing to alleviate the pain now ripping apart the surviving family members?

  I am not a blogger. But, I had to find a forum. I too have a college age kid and thus have an inkling of the wrenching heartache. But, my God, how do I express how sorry I am for their losses?

  A wacked out foreign student. Gun crazy society. Evil men in their unmitigated pursuit of the almighty buck spewing out garbage entertainment that trains and desensitizes would-be killers. So many guilty, bloody hands. Rotten to the core, the human race is. Is there redemption for us? For this teenage wasteland?

  So sad. So sorry. So ashamed. So lost…

  A contrite heart.

• 22. Jean Cline  |  April 18th, 2007 at 6:56 am

  NO CHOICE; The teachers need to carry guns. Some could have been saved. Criminals will always be able to obtain guns. (((Our Prayers of comfort & support go out to ALL the families & students at VA TECH., from OREGON)))

• 23. Angry  |  April 18th, 2007 at 7:56 am

  To the author of #20. Anonymous | April 17th, 2007 at 11:23 pm.

  If you don’t understand the end result correlation of your statement regarding nail clippers to Gun Control or Ban, please sit in a dark room with no other stimulus and ponder it until the little light bulb finally turns on in your head. Or, several of us can explain it to you in standard media 6th grade english.

  #22. I somewhat agree, but would limit it to designated and trained teachers (similar to a floor fire drill person in charge). It wouldn’t have to even be a handgun, it could be a Taser. Something, I agree. And better yet, again, make it mandatory for a course on chivalry to be taught - I still can’t get over 20 year olds leaving a 70 year old teacher holding a door close while they jumped out of a window.

  #21. What in the world are you talking about. Complicity? No one holds you or your race accountable, I certainly don’t. Evil men? Capitalism? Entertainment? They are not responsible, overall morality in our society, the gradual abatements of core rights, a ‘me’ mentality and an general lack in capital punishment for accountabliilty.

  It is a hard thing to say and have understood in context but there is a minimal order of magnitude here. That is why making this into a political agenda about Public Satefy and Gun issues is so ludicrous. Other countries deal with losses in this number daily or multiple times per day. It hits home and affects us because we as Americans are used to having what we want, when we want it and with little concern for how we affect others - hence why life seems so cheap to individuals such as the shooter.

  You can’t control what singular people do and regulate society based on the actions of a fraction of a percentage and you can’t adjudicate morality.

• 24. Jenny Savage  |  April 18th, 2007 at 8:25 am

  I look forward to information about what kind of mental health treatment received by Cho…and if he was on medication, particularly any of the SSRIs. I have begun to learn that SSRIs (the popular antidepressant Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors) are not monitored at all as they should be, that they reduce–even eliminate–any anxiety over time if the medication, once initiated, does not carry with it at least monthly contact by counselors/physician and monitoring for what is called a “plateau-effect”, which I found in a medical journal from 1998 known and referred to as a “poop out” effect. The outcome is that the patient is still depressed (or, in Cho’s case, if he was on one of these medications), just doesn’t have anxiety about it…therefore, harm to self or others is not anxiety inducing at all and easier to carry out. This is a critical issue in pharmaceutical industry who has developed and highly marketed these medications as a “panacea” to medical doctors–without stressing the important need for continued follow-up or medication adjustment. This issue has been related, in fact, to children recommended not to be prescribed SSRIs after they were introduced and, most recently, a suit came up last year about a 20-something college student on SSRI who attempted suicide. Personally, I also had been placed on SSRI, had an incredibly destructive life event after a year and a half…and only until four years later, finally seeing a psychiatrist and researching about treatment, did I realize this effect of behaving in uncharacteristic ways as a result of removed anxiety, with continued symptoms.

• 25. TJ  |  April 18th, 2007 at 8:26 am

  I’m appalled at who posted the shooter’s family address, they are just as much a victim and by doing this you have just added to this tragedy, you’re beyond an idiot.

  To “Angry” though you want to call the men students “weenies”, who are you to judge? Were you in the room with them? I’m sure things happened so fast and you have so many things going through you’re mind that it makes it hard to react. At first you’re probably in disbelief not wanting to comprehend what is going on and then I’m sure survival instincts kick in. People react different from one another. No one has any right to judge what these people did. Human instinct is to automatically protect oneself. To second guess what these students did is totally uncalled for and inappropriate. I hope you are never faced with the decision that these poor people had to make.

  To the the families, the staff and students at VA Tech, my heart goes out to you and I’m so sorry for all the pain you are forced to bear. May the rest of you’re lives be filled with joy, unconditional love and the good memories of those that are lost.

  Sending you a heartfelt hug all the way from Idaho.

• 26. John O'  |  April 18th, 2007 at 9:03 am

  This is not about guns, police or who could’ve done what to prevent this little bastard’s unholy rampage.

  This is about a psychotic piece of crap whose body I would have kicked down the steps of Norris Hall till it couldn’t be kicked anymore.

  Nothing, I repeat nothing can be done about reprobates of his ilk. A chip on his shoulder the size of two campuses and a dry cleaner’s mentality to go with it.

  But make no mistake, I’ve nothing against those who clean other people’s laundry, but this is one piece of crap that will never be erased from people’s memories.

• 27. Kay  |  April 18th, 2007 at 9:04 am

  I don’t understand how so many students could have the where-with-all to give media interviews yesterday. If I had a near death experience and saw friends and teachers being murdered, I don’t believe I would have the poise nor even care to be on TV telling the world about it. One guy was on every channel, including Larry King last night. Are these people being paid by the networks? Why in the world would you want to speak about it over and over again on television? Wouldn’t you want to be with friends and family?

• 28. TJ  |  April 18th, 2007 at 9:23 am

  I would imagine that for some people to keep talking about it is a way to heal, even if that means talking to the press.

• 29. Angry  |  April 18th, 2007 at 10:52 am

  Tj:

  They are not men. They are weenies.

  To be Human is to Judge. We are only ‘human’.

  By every account, each classroom listened for minutes as the prior classroom was decimated. One classroom had time to barricade the door and that class appears to have been made up of predominantly women, who should be commended for their actions.

  If noone has any right to judge what these people did, then noone has a right to judge the inaction of the police, the preparedness of the University, the sale of guns and the motive of the shooter. Your argument holds no water - if it did, this blog would not exist and we would have little or no Law.

  If Human instinct is to automatically protect oneself and not necessarily aid others selflessly, we would all be speaking and writing German, Japanese or Korean at this very moment.

  I have been faced with two occassions in a similar vein at a similar age and had less time to react - but I did. And I am a normal, non-military, shorter than average Joe.

• 30. Bunny  |  April 19th, 2007 at 6:58 pm

  It was not gun or foreigner or immigrant… The issue is well attended when we stop racism/ bullying in campuses..

  Let us remember every one in this coiuntry was once immigrant or their parents immigrated here or came here as slave. Atleast we have laws for immigrants now which lets quality people. This person was subjugated to racism and bullying which forced him to do this as he mentions in NBC video. We bully any asian whether chinese/ vietnames/ korean as chinese and tell them go back to China. We cannot stop this kinda thing until we stop racism and bullying. We are racists, we should stop this to protect and promote multi cultural diversity.

• 31. Angry  |  April 20th, 2007 at 5:02 am

  Bunny, what are you talking about?!

  You stated, we are racist. You are correct, everyone is racist to a certain extent; to deny that is ludicrous. However racism/bullying is a part of life and is no excuse for this level of violence on a campus or elsewhere.

  Do not confuse this person with an immigrant. He was a foreign national, not a citizen; albeit a permanent legal resident. I refuse to give him that credit on top of all the sympathy he is getting in the media.

  Are you saying (At least we have laws for immigrants now which lets quality people) that everyone prior to the immigration process was not a quality person? Wow, Bunny, that sounds awfully racist against Americans - I hope your words don’t make me buy a gun and kill all my co-workers next week due to my anxiety over not being a quality person in this country. In any case, he did not immigrate so that is a mute point.

  (This person was subjugated to racism and bullying which forced him to do this as he mentions in NBC video.) Please shut up and leave for Europe or Canada immediately.

  (We bully any asian whether chinese/ vietnames/ korean as chinese and tell them go back to China.) I don’t remember doing this, wow, show me the tape of my actions. I would bet that I have had way more bullying than the shooter in my lifetime.

  (We cannot stop this kinda thing until we stop racism and bullying.) Not going to stop, at certain levels its part of human nature, we have to learn to deal with the fact that not everyone will love us, like us or respect us. I have been on that side of the fence too and I have not killed anyone - especially people I didn’t know.

  Appears NBC accomplished what they desired in their agenda - to aggrandize this insane person. We have Bunny and millions of others feeling sympathy now.

  (We should stop this to protect and promote multi cultural diversity) Absolutely not. How about these two novel concepts - American Culturalism (people actually melting and assimilating into the Melting Pot) and individual responsibility.

• 32. AirVoid  |  April 25th, 2007 at 5:15 am

  Always the cops in these cases stuggle to find a motive. Even when the shooters have left letters, video tapes etc explaining why. Simply put noone wants to accept the motive. Society. Fk i hate this fake lil dream that so many of you are happy living in, and so happy throwing other people out of. But ofcourse you whine about it when someone who you have effectively Created into a killer goes and kills people to make a statement. You Created him, wtf you complaining about? huh?

  Also i dont see what his race has to do with anything. If i take the facts that he’s Korean, and American. I’d have to say that the American part stands out more when it comes to school shootings and rampages. Lets not pin it on Korea, Pin it on yourselves and your society. And if you want the killing of innocents to stop then maybe you should care about these people BEFORE the situation occurs. Its so easy to spot. i mean these people generally tell others they are going to do it. Letters, stories, anti social behaviour. If you are going to suggest they are psychopaths because of this behaviour and suggest they go to therapy because they are crazy then i can pretty much gaurentee they are going to turn into exactly what you are suggesting they already are. a psychopath. Psychology 101

• 33. AirVoid  |  April 25th, 2007 at 5:30 am

  (This person was subjugated to racism and bullying which forced him to do this as he mentions in NBC video.) Please shut up and leave for Europe or Canada immediately

  Well now why would he do something like that when he can shoot a bunch of you, and then commit suicide effectively screwing you guys so badly without consequences and teach you a lesson at the same time? Clearly he wanted revenge for things already done, he didn’t want to fit in anymore. He was past fitting in. Once you are thrown out of society you dont WANT to get back in. You only want it to pay right?

  Also i love how the victims are made out to be lil angels like wtf. As if those people never fkd anyone. As if half those people weren’t on drugs. As if As if As fkn IF!!!!!!!! Noone is actually innocent!! ok? They are just normal people, stop painting a portrait of the way you or their parents see things. Parents know nothing about their kids. infact stats show 1 out of every 32 American adults are behind bars at some point. So perhaps one of those people he killed was someone that society would deem as bad.

• 34. Eric  |  April 25th, 2007 at 7:11 am

  heyy..

• 35. Eric  |  April 25th, 2007 at 7:12 am

  To the author of #20. Anonymous | April 17th, 2007 at 11:23 pm.

  If you don’t understand the end result correlation of your statement regarding nail clippers to Gun Control or Ban, please sit in a dark room with no other stimulus and ponder it until the little light bulb finally turns on in your head. Or, several of us can explain it to you in standard media 6th grade english.

  #22. I somewhat agree, but would limit it to designated and trained teachers (similar to a floor fire drill person in charge). It wouldn’t have to even be a handgun, it could be a Taser. Something, I agree. And better yet, again, make it mandatory for a course on chivalry to be taught - I still can’t get over 20 year olds leaving a 70 year old teacher holding a door close while they jumped out of a window.

  #21. What in the world are you talking about. Complicity? No one holds you or your race accountable, I certainly don’t. Evil men? Capitalism? Entertainment? They are not responsible, overall morality in our society, the gradual abatements of core rights, a ‘me’ mentality and an general lack in capital punishment for accountabliilty.

  It is a hard thing to say and have understood in context but there is a minimal order of magnitude here. That is why making this into a political agenda about Public Satefy and Gun issues is so ludicrous. Other countries deal with losses in this number daily or multiple times per day. It hits home and affects us because we as Americans are used to having what we want, when we want it and with little concern for how we affect others - hence why life seems so cheap to individuals such as the shooter.

  You can’t control what singular people do and regulate society based on the actions of a fraction of a percentage and you can’t adjudicate morality.

• 36. D  |  April 25th, 2007 at 4:42 pm

  Whoever posted Cho Seung-hui’s family’s address is even more sick then seung-hui! If you read this “I truly wonder how you can sleep at night with yourself?”

• 37. Wesley Richardson  |  April 26th, 2007 at 12:48 am

  Honorable Shelby:
  I am assuming that the civil right laws that protect the Afro-Americans protect immigrants as well, if they do not I am requesting that you propose new legislation giving them the same equal rights.

  Due to the many school shooting that have happen due to harassment by bullies, I am requesting that the Department Of Justice investigate Virginia Tech to see why it did not have a discipline protocol in place for reporting and reprimanding bullies.
  Thank you,
  Rev. Wesley Richardson PM

  =====================================
  DID VIRGINIA TECH CONDONE STUDENTS HARASSING UNDESIRABLES?
  This South Korean student had a mouth deformity which is obvious on the videos. Why didn’t someone from the schools assist this young man in getting speech therapy and referrals to a neurologist, a oral surgeon, etc.

  There are federal laws prohibiting harassment of minorities. I haven’t seen or heard anything that indicates that the university has disciplined students and/or staff for harassing this young man. It should have been reported especially when it occurred in the classrooms. Was his harassment reported to the dean and/or to the authorities by anyone?

  Perhaps he would have reflected badly on the college’s image with him being an English major graduate of Virginia Tech and could not talk. Does this college condone other students humiliating and harassing the undesirables until they drop out. The only problem here is that this student didn’t drop out.

  This practice of condoning peers running off undesirable has been used in the work force as well as in schools for years. It has many advantages; however, if it backfires as it did here where the student would not drop out but went on a killing spree. All those that knew about these illegal practice will probably face felony charges.

  Evidently Virginia Tech prefers the elite, America’s fittest young men and women with no provisions in place for the poor, and the handicapped. Every article that I have read about this immigrant’s history (prior to the month of the shootings) in America reflects some type of harassment or civil right violations. The local high school as well as this college needs to be audited by the DOJ.

  Why did the teachers/professors constantly put him on the spot to speak in class? All instructors when they get a class roster should have been given a brief medical history of each student concerning physical deformities, allergies etc.

  Why was this student an English Major anyway? Was it part of the plot to get him to quit the school or was it a cruel joke by the school counselors that he ended up in a field where it was impossible for him to participate orally and master.

  His English teacher’s accent, fancy jewelry and her attire makes me think she missed a Hollywood or Broadway career and had to take a job where I believe she feels misplaced and possibly resents being isolated to a small classroom occupied by mixed nationalities whose attire is mainly blue jeans and T-shirts. I believe that it was an insult to her with him being in her class with an English/literature major and not being able to orally communicate.

• 38. TheNewTomPaine  |  April 26th, 2007 at 7:35 am

  I am very disturbed about the media coverage in this matter and shallow commentaries offered by the talking head “anal”-ists. Even libertarians and civil liberty advocates were and are quick to embrace and extend the influences and restrictions of psuedo-sciences such as espoused by psychologists and psychiatrists as a panacea for safety. History has shown that “mental health” of citizens and others has ivariably been abused and misused to persecute, procute and oppress; even to the extent for justifying genocide. This trend is frightening and threatening.

  One only needs to consider the dark thoughts and mannerisms of celebrated cultural figures. One could easily see these psuedo-scientists and a skittish judiciary declaring the likes of Van Goh, Dostevsky, Edgar Allan Poe, Tarantino, Orwell, Huxley, and Freud himself as being too dark and obsessing to be free and “unmedicated” for the “mental norms” of society. If we allow psuedo-scientists more footholds in the courts and deciding whose thoughts are not right, we create a thought police by our own thoughtlessness.

  As applied to the shooter, if he had been captured instead of commiting suicide, the same pundits and anal-ists would have taken the exact same facts and declared his actions demonstrated he did not suffer from a mental illness and he would have been quickly imprisoned or given the death penalty. I submit to you that in every case where there is a psuedo scientist offering an opinion on the mental status or social ilness of a person, you can find psuedo scientists to reject the claim.

  In short, there are obvious dangers to our freedoms involved in reforming mental health, commitment and punishment laws and procedures. Psychology, psychiatry and the like are not subject to scrutiny and are not hard sciences. People should stop looking at simplistic reactionary fixes to aberrant and unpredictable actions. To do so will lead to another excuse to overreach and punish all those who are “different” but dark, mysterious and introverted. And since there isn’t bright lines in the world of psuedo science, nobody (like the case of taking freedoms by wiretapping) can say “I’m not, so I don’t have anything to worry about”. You need only to take a personal inventory and reflect on whether someone thinks you are wierd in your traits, personality or socialization habits to understand how this one size fits all mentality for immediate corrective action could emerge to affect you and those you know.

  So think twice. This creeping intrusion into “thoughts” and “acceptable behavior” has a tremendous potential for subverting the entire Bill of Rghts and the notions of freedom of thought. Everyone should be outraged and worried at these types “reformation”.

• 39. Mark 3321  |  April 29th, 2007 at 9:55 pm

  test

• 40. Mark 3321  |  April 29th, 2007 at 10:08 pm

  This comes to show our youth in the world today- Idiots. The only person to blame is the stupid kid who should have lived to pay for his selfish actions. Is it me, or is this world just becoming a world of idiots. I see this trend at work, school, and in society in general. I am not claiming to be a genius, but I do claim to use common sense! Why in the hell would someone kill innocent young lives. Not all, but a large majority of people these days are just brainless mules. Worst of all, they are breeding !

• 41. Angry  |  April 30th, 2007 at 1:47 pm

  TheNewTomPaine. ??
  Quite a few points I agree with you on, some have overly flowery verbiage that makes your point confusing.
  With the exception that there are traits, personalities and habits that are generally acceptable, some that are tolerable, some that are ignored and some that are simply unacceptable; such as being a confirmed harrasser and stalker while at the same time having an imaginary girlfriend named ‘Jelly’. No one is questioning or regulating thoughts until the thoughts become action. This is not ‘Minority Report’.

  Mark: Nicely said.

• 42. Rhigas  |  January 2nd, 2008 at 7:32 pm

  Nice!

• 43. Spiro  |  January 19th, 2008 at 10:31 pm

  Sorry

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