What effect did this scene from his high school days have on Cho's mind? [View All]

[BurtWorm]

From all I've read or seen about him, it seems that Cho had some sort of organic brain syndrome that affected him his whole life. I know of instances of a child with anti-social tendencies coming out of families that are otherwise perfectly functional. Who knows what causes the one misfit--a head injury? A genetic mutation? Environmental factors in the pregnancy? Who knows? But it seems clear that Cho was already "off" by the time the scene below occurred.

I was pretty shy myself in a lot of my school days--not a loner, but a kid who often dreaded being in the spotlight. I can empathize with the Cho in the story below, which, I'm guessing, is a lot more than Cho was capable of toward anyone else. But I can recall scenes in school when I really did not want to participate and would have received no sympathy from teacher or classmates. You don't easily forget such primal scenes of public humiliation.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18169776/


Chris Davids, a Virginia Tech student who graduated with Cho from Westfield High School in Chantilly, Va., in 2003, recalled that Cho almost never opened his mouth and would ignore attempts to strike up a conversation.

Once, in an English class, the teacher had the students read aloud and, when it was Cho’s turn, he just looked down in silence, Davids recalled in an interview with The Associated Press. Finally, after the teacher threatened to give him a failing grade for participation, Cho started to read in a strange, deep voice that sounded “like he had something in his mouth,” Davids said.

“As soon as he started reading, the whole class started laughing and pointing and saying, ‘Go back to China,’” Davids said.