Could the Virginia Tech massacre have been avoided?

On April 16, 2007, a 23-year-old student, Cho Seung-Hui, opened fire in a dormitory at Virginia Tech, a university in Virginia, USA and killed two students, one being his ex-girlfriend and the other being another student who heard the shots and went to see what happened. Cho returned to his own residence in another building,picked up material he was going to put in the post office, returned to his residence to pick up more ammunition, all of this in a span of two hours and walked into one of the classroom buildings and by using two handguns, he killed 27 students and five teachers and wounding others before committing suicide.

In Cho’s video which he mailed to CNN, he said, “Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off.” unquote. He was absolutely right when he wrote that statement. There is blood on the hands of the psychiatrist who misdiagnosed his mental problems after others including a court judge were aware that he was mentally ill and possibly dangerous. There is blood on the hands of the police officers who arrived at the scene of the first shooting incident and concluded that it was only a domestic shooting. And finally there is blood on the hands of the University’s senior staff who didn’t warn the students and faculty that there was a gunman shooting people until some considerable time had passed after the first two students were shot to death.

These events raise questions about whether warning signs about Mr. Cho’s strange behavior was recognized by the university, the police and the psychiatrist who did a psychiatric evaluation of Cho.

I will deal with the first errors. The gunman was a troubled loner whose violent writings so disturbed his English teacher that she referred him to counseling. He rarely ever talked to anyone. He didn’t even talk to his roommate. This probably stemmed from the fact that when he came to the United States with his parents from South Korea, he didn’t understand the English language and when he was in Middle School (High School) his understanding of the English language was so poor, he simply chose not to speak. I suppose that when he finally understood the language, he simply continued to keep his thoughts to himself and remain mute. Two female Virginia Tech students had complained of harassment and stalking by Mr. Cho in separate 2005 incidents. General District Court records show that a Montgomery County magistrate ordered Mr. Cho to undergo a mental evaluation in December 2005. The magistrate found probable cause that Mr. Cho was mentally ill and an imminent danger to himself and others and was so seriously mentally ill as to be substantially unable to care for himself. The court directed any authorized officer of the Virginia Tech police department to arrest him and take him to a mental health facility for observation and evaluation.

As an aside, since July 2001, a threat assessment committee at the University of Toronto has been able to identify staff and students who might pose a danger to others, and has intervened and offered help in the form of counselling or time off work. Two or three situations like that develop over the course of a regular academic year in that University. So far, the university has had a 100 per cent success rate from the point of view that it has never had an escalation in conflict or violence since the university intervened.

I strongly suspect that even if Virginia Tech had expelled Mr. Cho because of his unusual behavior, it wouldn’t have prevented what had occurred on April 16th. A large number of people who have been fired from their jobs in the past have returned to their work places and murdered their bosses and co-workers.

US federal law bars gun purchases by anyone who has been deemed a mental defective by a court or ordered committed to any mental institution. The Virginia State Police said that despite that law, Cho could still buy firearms legally. That was because he was only taken to a mental hospital for evaluation on Dec. 13, 2005 and not for the purpose of being committed involuntarily to the institution.

The blame for this catastrophe lies for the most part on the psychiatrist at the mental health facility who miss-diagnosed Cho’s mental problems and recommended that Cho be treated as an outpatient rather than be committed as an involuntary patient. If he had done his job properly or alternatively, was properly trained to watch for the red flags that fit the profile of a mass murderer, Cho would still be an involuntary patient at a mental health facility instead of murdering innocent students and a teacher at Virginia Tech. If the psychiatrist knew what he was doing, he would have realized that Cho was a paranoid/schizophrenic; the kind of illness that is common in mass murderers.

The so-called psychiatrist could have conducted tests which would have shown that Cho was a loner who was suspicious of others, had been bullied when he was in high school, had a history of repression and was suicidal, had fantasies of revenge (something that showed up in his writings) a low tolerance for frustration, regarded violence as a way to resolve problems, (again found in his writings) possessed guns,mumbled when he talked (which might have shown that he had difficulty in communication with others which would increase his frustration) and he idolized other mass murderers. (such as the two students who murdered other students and a teacher at Columbine High School eight years ago. If Cho had two or three of these characteristics, that wouldn't necessarily mean that he was a mass murderer ready to pounce on innocent victims but having all of these characteristics should convince a good psychiatrist that he was in the presence of a potential mass murderer. Despite this, the so-called psychiatrist missed the signs just as a confused and lost motorist misses signs that are right ahead of him. However, I would be less than honest if I didn't admit that according to published studies, a diagnosis of mental illness is not necessarily a strong predictor of violence.

Of course, it didn't help that the gun laws in the US are extremely lax. Over seventy million persons in the United States possesses a gun, be it a handgun, a rifle or a shotgun. Cho was able to buy the 22 cal. handgun and the 54 cal. Glock without difficulty because when he answered the question on the forms that asked if he was suffering from a mental illness, he wrote in the word, “No.” Shootings is an ongoing problem that the Americans are facing year after year and as many as 30,000 victims in the US die every year as a result of shootings. In 1998, as many as 670,500 crime victims reported facing a criminal with a gun in the US.

It has been suggested that if the students were permitted to carry concealed handguns on their person while attending Virginia Tech, (which they are not) they could have defended themselves. Admittedly, there is some legitimacy to that premise but at the same time, it would cause enormous problems for the students and staff and the police. For example, how could anyone distinguish who the shooter is if hundreds of students have hand guns in their hands? The problem would escalate if someone draws on another student thinking that that student is the shooter. The university, like all universities in North America have university police and it is they who must protect the students.

As a result of the fore mentioned failures, this human time bomb was able to remain as a student at Virginia Tech and at the same time, be armed to the teeth just waiting for the moment when he would finally go beserk.

Now I will deal with the failure of the police and that of the university to prevent this catastrophe. The first time that there was a sign that something was wrong was when shots were heard at 7:15 am at the Ambler Johnston Dormitory. Right after the shooting, Cho returned to his own dorm in another building to pick up his manifesto and videos he was going to mail to CNN. After his mailings, he then returned to his building to get more ammunition. Meanwhile, the police had been called at 7:15 am and shortly thereafter, they secured the Ambler Johnston Dormitory after Cho had already left. Unfortunately, the police treated the shooting incident as a domestic shooting and nothing more. They should have remembered what they learned from the shootings at other schools, colleges and universities in the past.

Meanwhile, classes at the University began at 8:00 am and none of the students in the classrooms were aware of what had occurred at the Ambler Johnston Dormitory.

At 8:25 am, a leadership team at the University met to develop a plan on how to notify students of the two homicides. It wasn’t until 9:26 am (an hour later) that the leadership team finally developed a plan. A school email was sent to the students notifying them that there had been a shooting at the Ambler Johnston Dormitory.

I don’t know why they thought that all the students would be at their computers but obviously, the message didn’t get across to the students and faculty at the Norris Hall building by the time Cho arrived there at 9:05 am or even when he began shooting students at 9:15 am in that building. By 9:45 am, Cho had shot 25 more students and 5 teachers to death and wounded others before shooting himself to death. Then at 9:55, (ten minutes after Cho shot himself) the University sent another email warning to the students advising them and faculty that there was a shooting in the Norris Hall building. That message was a bit late for the students in the Norris Hall building, would you not agree with me?

What the university should have had in place is a warning system that would warn everyone on campus, be they in dormitories, outside the buildings or in the classrooms and libraries within minutes of the first shots being fired, that there was a shooting at the university.

A system should have been set up that as soon as the university police were informed of the shooting at the Ambler Johnston Dormitory (and they were apprised of that fact within minutes of the first shooting) an emergency button at their headquarters on campus would be pushed and a series of sirens would go on outside the buildings. At the same time, an automatic message would be broadcasted in every building in the campus instructing the students and staff to lock all of the doors and to remain where they are until further notice.

Those students who are unfortunately still in the hallways when the doors to the classrooms are locked, can run to the main office of each building where an armed university police officer would be permanently stationed. Each office can then phone each of the classrooms for a status report. If the teacher in one of the classrooms doesn’t respond, it is conceivable that the shooter may be in that particular classroom.

Had such a system been in place at Virginia Tech, it wouldn’t have saved the first two victims who were shot at the Ambler Johnston Dormitory but none of the victims at the Norris Hall building would have been shot. Admittedly, this would cost the universities and colleges a great deal of money but when you factor into the equation, the loss of the lives of 25 students and 5 teachers in the Norris Hall building, the extra cost should not be a factor that should concern anyone.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that students in 560 public schools in Toronto will not be permitted to use their cell phones in the classrooms under a new board-wide policy approved recently. I can appreciate why that policy is to be in force since many students are talking on their cell phones during class instruction that is distracting to the other students and their teachers. However, some schools want the cell phones left in the student’s locker. This would be a terrible mistake. If there is a shooting in their school, the students in a lockdown would want to call their parents and tell them that they are all right. The Board should have simply stated that all cell phones are to be turned off during class instruction.

Unquestionably, shootings in learning facilities are rare considering how many schools, colleges and universities there are in the world but one shooting is too much and 32 deaths in one university by a man who has gone beserk is too terrible to comprehend.

As a result of this latest disaster, schools, colleges and universities all over North America are looking at their own emergency measures in hopes of thwarting a similar shooting in their learning facilities. Unfortunately, that is not unlike the captain of the Titanic ordering the engine room to slow down the engines after his ship had already rammed the iceberg at full speed. I suppose acting too late is better than not acting at all.