Cho's family speaks. "Gunman's brooding disturbed his family"

[Blue Diadem]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usguns/Story/0,,2061278,00.html

The brooding silence of Cho Seung-hui was so impenetrable it disturbed his family even when he was a boy growing up in South Korea, relatives of the Virginia killer told the Guardian today.

His grandfather feared Cho, at eight, might be mute; the boy's great aunt worried that he had mental problems. And his mother, Kim Hyang-im, spent most of her time in church praying for him to snap out of his unhealthy taciturnity.

"She was heartbroken. It was always her biggest worry when she called home," said the mother's aunt, Kim Yang-soon. "After they moved to America, she hoped his silences would ease as he grew older. But in fact, they got worse."

The poor but hard-working family had a difficult beginning. Cho's mother was forced into an arranged marriage with his father, Sung-tae, who was 10 years older and from a very different background. She was from a well-educated family of North Korean landowners, who had been forced to flee without possessions during the Korean war; he was from a poor family in the south, but had made enough money to marry by working in Saudi Arabia for 10 years on construction sites and oil fields.

more at link:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usguns/Story/0,,2061278,00.html

[jus_the_facts]

1. Hindsight is always 20/20. n/t

[GainesT1958]

2. It's hard to believe...

That either of his parents could have ignored the signs that Cho was schizophrenic. Particularly after his evaluation and institutionalization while already at VPI.

I know that in different cultures, this sort of thing is often "swept under the rug". (Then again, in THIS culture it often is, too.) But this guy should been institutionalized long-term, and should never have been allowed anywhere NEAR Blacksburg or VPI again.

Nobody from law enforcement (expecially campus law enforcement) or at the university in general can say with a straight face they didn't see it coming; there were too many warning signs of his illness, and especially too many on the record. When the first shootings occured, Cho should have been the first person they sought for questioning. Not being able to locate him, they should have posted a "stay-put" order to the entire campus until they had found him. That doesn't strike me as a hard call to make.

It also speaks to Virginia's lax gun control laws that nothing showed up on his background check. No one with his record or diagnosis should be allowed to purchase or own a gun of any kind.

I truly feel sorry for his parents. But with mental illness, one has to face facts, and seek help, expecially where a family member is concerned.

B-)

[Blue Diadem]

3. I wonder if his parents knew about his problems at the school.

I've heard on the news that due to privacy laws that his parents may not have been notified of his evaluation and 2 day stay.

At least we know now that he had a life-long problem..whatever it was, personality disorder or mental illness.

[Marie26]

4. Was he schizophrenic?

Do we know that for sure?

[kestrel91316]

8. Paranoid and delusional. Pretty damned close, if not exactly.

CLEARLY not in touch with reality.

[Marie26]

9. But there hasn't been a diagnosis.

Internet diagnosis are basically just speculation.

[kestrel91316]

12. As someone with decades of intimate personal experience with

a family member with schizophrenia, I can spot these folks a mile away.

My mom wrote me the most amazingly insane, rambling letters over the years. Sometimes just "word salad", and always severely delusional.

I recognize the same sort of disordered thinking. Cho was not sane. You don't have to be a psychiatrist to figure it out.

[Marie26]

13. Yeah

I also had a relative w/schizophrenia - and although odd & delusional, I would never describe him as "mean" or cruel. So it all depends. People vary widely, & there's no way to be sure about what the illness here was. Without an official diagnosis, it is all just speculation.

[maxsolomon]

5. his mother spent her time praying

instead of swallowing her pride & DOING SOMETHING.

prayer is not action. "you cannot petition the lord with prayer" - jim morrison

so fucking sad.

[maxsolomon]

6. I was wondering about the Video Games

I'm surprised they haven't gotten more knee-jerk attention. He learned to shoot somewhere.

snip<When Cho started college, at Virginia Tech, his mother took his dormitory mates to one side to explain about her son's unusual character and implored them to help.

"She was worried that he spent all his time in his room, lost in a world of video games," the paper quoted the pastor as saying. " came to bible studies for a couple of years, but rarely spoke and never got along with the other youths. I can't believe he has done this to such a devoted mother."

Back in Seoul, the family are worried that they had not heard from Cho's parents since the killings. They have wondered if things might have been different had they been able to bring the boy out of his shell. "I just wish he would have talked," says Yong-soon. "There is an old saying in Korea that people who won't talk will end up killing themselves. That is what happens when the resentment builds up.">

[Blue Diadem]

7. I think this article is the first that mentioned it

I wonder why no roommates have mentioned the games or that his Mom spoke with them.

[Marie26]

10. Reminds me of "the Bad Seed." nt

[Bluerthanblue]

11. ...?...his grandparents only saw him twice, yet they worried he was always silent??

I don't know about anyone else but this isn't all that unusual-

The other thing that stands out to me is the refrence to the father not being in the mothers league-
and the mother being something of an 'old maid'- in their eyes.
Then they go on to say that the father adored his children, and would do anything for them-
There is an awful lot of negative undercurrent here-


I'm inclined to read this normally fairly reliable source with a big grain of salt.

It is also curious that the roommates didn't mention Mom's talk.

This is just so sad, on every level.

peace,
blu