The J-TAC (Stephenville, Tex.), Vol. 173, No. 11, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 19, 2007 Page: 2 of 14
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News
Page 2
THE J-TAC
April 19, 2007
Police: Cho was a known psychological
problem, but he had broken no laws
By JANE STANCI1X
and LESLEY CLARK
McClatchy Newspapers(MCT)
BLACKSBURG, Va. - It
seemed like everyone who knew
Cho Seung-Hui at Virginia Tech
witnessed his odd, disturbing be-
havior — professors, classmates,.
roommates and two women he
stalked.
Now, the question is, with
all the warning signs, should the
university have taken more ag-
gressive action to deal with the
troubled student? Couid some-
thing have been done to prevent
Monday's massacre?
Virginia Tech police inves-
tigated complaints about Cho
stalking, women two years ago.
Professors reported concerns
about his classroom behavior
and writings laced with violence.
At one point, professors told re-
porters, Cho was removed from
class when other students be-
came afraid to attend class with
him.
In December 2005, a Mont-
gomery County, Va., court magis-
trate pronounced him "mentally
ill" and ^dangerotis and ordered
him treated briefly at a nearby
psychiatric hospital.
But he remained enrolled at
Virginia Tech, where his mental
state deteriorated. On the other
hand, he apparently committed
no crime and threatened no vio-
lence to others.
The painful second-guessing
of Virginia Tech's actions could
prompt changes in the way US,
college -campuses handle stu-
dents with mental illnesses. It's j
already a widely debated issue,
complicated by questions of
medical confidentiality, univer-
sities' legal liability arid a rising
population of college students
with serious mental illnesses.,
It's an acute problem, ac-
cording to the National Survey
of Counseling Center Directors
conducted last year, Ninety-two
percent said the number of stu-
dents with severe psychological
issues has increased in recent
years. They said 40 percent of stu-
dents seen at counseling centers
have severe problems, including
8 percent whose impairments are
so serious that they can't remain
in school or can do so only with
extensive treatment,
Ironically, college counselors
attribute the rise to improve-
ments in psychiatric drugs that
allow more people with mental
illnesses to make it to college in
the first place. ,
fX'sr,
Families and students join in prayer at Virginia Tech's Drill Field,
Wednesday, April 18,2007, near where more than 30 people were
killed in a shooting rampage at the Blacksburg, Virginia campus
on Monday. (Jason Arthurs/Raleigh News & Observer/MCT)
Virginia Tech timeline
I!:.;.1 New information
Monday, April 16 i Tuesday, April 17 ! Wednesday, April 18
7:13 a.m. Gunfire J Gunman identified ] Authorities reveal
reported in West t ais Cho Suen^Hui, \ that in 2005 Cho was
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It has created new problems for
universities,, where counseling
centers are often not equipped
to deal with serious illnesses and
growing numbers of students
who need, treatment,
Kevin Kruger, associate ex-
ecutive director of the National
Association of Student Person-
nel Administrators, said the Vir-
ginia Tech tragedy is likely to
influence many colleges' policies
about how they identify students
who may dangerous.
"My gut on this is we're go-
ing to become more likely to
want to remove students from
the educational environment/'
Kruger said.
There are no easy answers.
After a 2002 lawsuit by the
parents of an MIT student who
committed suicide, more univer-
sities began to force suicidal stu-
dents to withdraw from school,
at least temporarily. Another
lawsuit by a George Washington-
University student claimed that
the school violated the federal
disability law when it suspend-
ed-him after he sought help for
depression.
"Everyone's going to be look-
ing at those threshold points,
and (ask) 'When do we take
more drastic action?"' Kruger
said. ''Ifs the classic tension be-
tween individual freedom — the
right of every, individual to stay
on campus with the interests
of the community/'
Sheldon Steinbach, a former
attorney for the American Coun-
cil on Education, said universi-
ties are well versed in handling
troubled students, and only with
20-20 hindsight could one have
predicted such trauma.
"On any given campus, par-
ticularly one that is, as academi-
cally selective as Tech is, there
are individuals thai: exhibit pecu-
liar tendencies, and increasingly
more and more students come to
school with a variety of emotion-
al problems and on medication,"
Steinbach said. ''No one is sug-
gesting that these people ought
to be barred from campus."
Sophisticated protocols are
in place on most campuses to
deal with seriously troubled stu-
dents,, Steinbach said. "It seems
that. Virginia Tech dotted every I
and crossed ev£ry:T.f'"'^: ,
Strange beShpiji^^rgely a
judgment call> arid' forcing stu-
dents into treatment isn't usually
an option, said Maggie Olona,
head of student counseling at
Texas A&M University and pres-
ident of the Association for Uni-
versity and\ College Counseling
Center Directors.
"They said there were signs
there," Olona said of Cho. "There
can be signs, but ifs not a crime
to be odd. There is nothing we
can do if someone doesn't give
us evidence to act."
Many universities have case
management teams that meet td'
evaluate students whose behav-
ior repeatedly raises red flags,
But it's also easy for students to
slip through the cracks.
Texas A&M, for example,
employs 27 counselors for 45,000
to 46,000 students — "and we are
well staffed and .well funded,"
Olona said.
"You do the math."
Baghdad bombings
kill more than 170
By SHASHANK BENGALI, LAITH HAM-
MOUDI and NANCY A. YOUSSEF
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
BAGHDAD, Iraq — At least 173 people
died in Baghdad on Wednesday in a series of
major explosions, making the day the capital's
deadliest since the onset nine weeks ago of a
much-touted U,S.-Iraqi security plan.
The violence capped a dreadful seven days
that began with a stunning suicide attack in the
Iraqi parliament building in the heavily fortified
Green Zone, which killed a lawmaker. At least
363 people died in Baghdad in the past week, in-
cluding 113 whose bodies were found dumped
in various parts of the city,
1 In Washington, Pentagon officials urged pa-
tience, saying two of the five U.S. brigades or-
dered to Iraq as part of the security plan have
yet to arrive. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates,
in Israel, blamed al-Qaida for Wednesdays at-
tacks and said xnilitary planners had anticipated
such actions,
Pentagon planners privately expressed con-
cern. One official sighed at news of the bomb-
ings. "We don't have enough troops. It would
take another 100,000" to properly protect Bagh-
dad. Another said: "We are just trying the same
things over and over' again." Neither would
agree to speak on the record, citing the sensitiv-
ity of the topic.
Outside the Pentagon, experts urged the
Bush administration to reassess its plan, which
. has reduced the number(of .unidentified corpses
found oh Baghdad's streets but has done noth-
ing to stop mass-fatality bombings.
. Jack Keane, a retired general who helped
craft the surge policy, said it will be summer be-
fore an assessment can be done. If the violence
continues to rise and Iraq's politicians can't find
a political solution to the conflict, "then the op-
eration will be unsuccessful."
Wednesday's carnage was the worst in Bagh-
dad in several months. In addition to the dead,
at least 228 people were injured throughout the
city.
'Thedeadliestfattackcatni5inM famtrai'Sa-
j driyaht -neighborhood/ where; Shiitai Muslims
predominate.(Shortly-after 4 p,m./iar!bomb ex-
ploded in a parking Jot near the^ain- market-
place, torching a cluster of about 30 Toyota mini-
buses filled with passengers, residents said.
Police officials said the;blast killed 140
people and wounded 150, some of whom were
swaddled in blankets and carted away.from the
scene in handcarts. Cranes lifted charred bod-
ies from the wreckage while rescue Workers cut
through twisted metal to free trapped survi-
vors. . < , :
U.S. military officials said the damage would
have been even worse if the blast had penetrat-
ed a series of concrete barriers surrounding the
shopping area, which is filled with restaurants.
In another sign of escalating violence, 15.
corpses were found throughout the city, A total
of 101 dead bodies have been found over the
past five days, the highest total in three weeks.
As for car bombs, statistics maintained by
McClatchy Newspapers show that the security
plan has had ho beneficial impact, In the two
months before the plan went into effect on Feb.
15, there was an average of 1.1 car bombings a
day. Since then, the average is 1.2, the statistics
show.
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The J-TAC (Stephenville, Tex.), Vol. 173, No. 11, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 19, 2007, newspaper, April 19, 2007; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth142155/m1/2/: accessed May 2, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Tarleton State University.