April 17

Recent news

By Oronte

Our deepest sympathies go to those at Virginia Tech and their families. Violence on any campus is an attack on our own learning communities and a betrayal of the underlying hope that education represents. Please join us in offering condolences.

Comments

Oronte: what of the report that the gunman had written disturbing stories in an English class? As a creative writing professor, you must have encountered something similar. Is it the place of faculty to act on vaguely expressed threats in a student’s work? And if so, when can the professor sit back and say, “I’ve done enough"?

dan, at 10:46 pm EDT on April 17, 2007

When Cho’s writing and behavior surfaced more than a year ago, why wasn’t he put on suicide watch and removed from the campus? The residence dorm counselor should have contacted the police as soon as it was evident that he was having problems, and had him removed to a secure facility. It appears that this thought of massacre was brewing for a while which is evident in the writings that have surfaced since the indicent occurred.

Alison Pinsley, at 8:15 am EDT on April 18, 2007

The law regarding how administration interacts with students who write disturbing things seems to be similar to laws dealing with stalkers — until they actually do something, their hands are tied. In this case, that is truly unfortunate. We do know that his professor tried to be a good mentor, & get him to counseling. I’m not sure what the VT campus judiciary system has to say about his earlier run-ins, & if they would have been able to have him expelled from school.Even then, short of somehow having him arrested, or committed, he may have come to the same end, perhaps at another campus, or in the workplace, something we can never know.

jon, Radford University, at 2:11 pm EDT on April 18, 2007