Did School Kids & Media play a role in the V. Tech Shooting?

okay, I know how it sounds. I would be the first person on this thread to say, "the guy has his own head and he made up his own mind." But I have found a chilling piece of evidence that tends to point to this possible reality.

Okay, I will lightly touch base on the fact that the media tend to glorify stories with their fantistical wording. Like, "Shooting is the record for worst in US History." I again know you can say, "Who Cares?" But let's assume that there is a growing number of fame seekers that if pushed too far will go out with a bang (pun intended).

This I read this article and something in a students interview startled me.

MacFarlane said in the blog that when the class read Cho's work, "it was like something out of a nightmare."

"The plays had really twisted, macabre violence that used weapons I wouldn't have even thought of. Before Cho got to class that day, we students were talking to each other with serious worry about whether he could be a school shooter."

They were talking about that? I bet that really meant they were making fun of the kid and with all the constant ridicule perhaps their own slanderous remarks were used as ingrediants in his self destruction. I mean, telling a man you make fun of he could be a school shooter, isn't smart, even when you could be giving a crazy man ideas.

It is a sensitive subject for sure, but I am clueless how to prevent this. Perhaps social service evaluations in every home.

AAC



[edit on 17-4-2007 by AnAbsoluteCreation]

Originally posted by AnAbsoluteCreation
Perhaps social service evaluations in every home.

This is one area where the "nanny state" could shine and remove its derogatory connotations. Yeah, we should step in alot more. Well said

Whenever these shooting happen now, I have to ask what role did the people around him play?

Some called him a loner, but then there are reports that he spent a great deal of time on the Internet. For the social college kids, not going out, drinking getting drunk, might mean he's a loner, but he could have a really interesting online life. Many people in today's society do.

I was saying the same thing. More importantly, did you see the plays he wrote? The guy who said that and posted two of the plays works for AOL, "the plays were something out of a nightmare" that's what the guy said. Now I took the time to read the plays, there were grade ninish at best, and they were nothing like what he was discribing. I don't know what sort of life the AOL guy who wrote that about the plays was leading, but the plays were something a grade 5 child could have written. They were no way near the violent nightmare discribed.

However I was placing bets on what happened. The person and his trouble maker friends, read the play, they don't like this guy, maybe he is excelling, too quite for them, etc, but then they start to talk amougst themselves and make fun of the plays, call him the next school shooter and the teacher who is like them, goes along with it.

Nowaday, teachers have to report stuff like this, so before you know it, this guy is set up as a possible problem and in need of help. He's getting talked about behind his back, probably socially stigmatised, and before you know it, you have the self fulfilling prophecy.

What I really want to know is if this guy was on any sort of monitoring program, or just how deep the social annex of him went. From the bits of the note the cop released, he said they drove him to it, but will the public ever see the full note? Did he have any online blogs?

I mean if he spent that much time on the computer, he was probably socialising someplace right?

I think in too many of these senarios, the person snaps, they all go, told you he was a nut job, and they feel just so justified in their actions, but the question is, did the actions create the senarios, that lead to what happened?

This is never looked into in these cases. Could there be something about the way society treats these quite distant sorts, who do not want to assimilate and fit in, to cause these end results? When this happens, no one looks into this, and no one checks into this aspect of it.

When I heard about the shooting, I was wondering the same thing, but I have decided to withhold judgement, until I have more details, however the bits that are coming out, confirm what I already suspected. When will society look into the impact that they are having with creating these very senarios.

I would guess that maybe if his classmates were not talking behind his back about whither he was going to become the next school shooter, then maybe he would not have become the next school shooter, maybe not. What I am say is you say he will become the next shool shooter, treat him accordingly, annex him, for a long enough period of time, and you create the very situation or senario that you talked about.

Until the role of society is examined, then I doubt very much that this is going to change.

^^^ Nice post

"You made me do this"

"You caused me to do this," the official quoted the note as saying.

AAC

[edit on 18-4-2007 by AnAbsoluteCreation]

Originally posted by AnAbsoluteCreation
I bet that really meant they were making fun of the kid and with all the constant ridicule perhaps their own slanderous remarks were used as ingrediants in his self destruction.

I would have to say that I agree with you to a degree. I think that this guy was left out and made fun of in high school, carried that anti-social passive agressiveness into college and allowed the anger to peak over the years and then snapped. You have to remember, we are talking about a school of 26,000. This isn't Bayside high


Anyway, he stalked two girls last year and neither of them were targeted. His other shootings appear to be random as well. Anyway, I think this guys anger goes way before college. He had also received phsyciatric help. I just saw on the news and his professer labeled him as arrogant, obnoxious and very insecure. I think this dude is just a product of media glamorization. He also named the two Columbine kids as heroes of his. So I would say that he was probably really messed with in High School and by College was ready to blow. He just needed a spark, and I'm sure that spark will come to light soon enough.

[edit on 19-4-2007 by kleverone]

Originally posted by kleverone
This isn't Bayside high

You should agree with me considering the class was only 30 deep. In that situation isolated oppression is at it's highest potential. That is a highschool setting in which you mentioned is where it usually takes place.

Why did he target one of his classes, chain the door behid him, and then start killing 70% of the room? I agree more played into his insanity, but these kids were the enabling critical mass.

AAC

Originally posted by AnAbsoluteCreation

Why did he target one of his classes, chain the door behid him, and then start killing 70% of the room? I agree more played into his insanity, but these kids were the enabling critical mass.

AAC

I thought the class the he targeted was the room but not the actual "class time" that he attended, so I suppose you could possibly classify his actions as routine. Heading toward a familiar setting but not necessarily exacting revenge on any particular person.

Hmm.. I think this had many contributing factors.

Such as this one.

Perhaps though, it was something more severe. What about the displacement from South Korea? I'd imagine he felt really alienated in western society.

Originally posted by SteveR
Hmm.. I think this had many contributing factors.

Such as this one.

Perhaps though, it was something more severe. What about the displacement from South Korea? I'd imagine he felt really alienated in western society.

That was a link to a scientology members thread.

Drugs bad. Dianetics good. Now give me your money!

AAC

Or maybe he got picked on in High School

BLACKSBURG, Va. - Long before he snapped, Virginia Tech gunman Cho Seung-Hui was picked on, pushed around and laughed at over his shyness and the strange way he talked when he was a schoolboy in the Washington suburbs, former classmates say

Here is more of the story