Two years after two disaffected youth killed 13 people in a shooting rampage
at Columbine High School, another community is coming to terms with the loss of 32 of their youth in one brutal swoop. What was yet another string of school campus violence culminating in death also happened to be the most violent and the most bizarre.
There was a two-hour gap between the first shooting (7:15 a.m.) and the second in another building (9:45 a.m.). Variations of the life of a killer, Cho Seung-Hui, were in the air that cruel day as the media and authorities attempted to grapple with the identity of the killer. Cho Seung-Hui was assumed to be the sole shooter, although the police at the time did not rule out the possibility of a second gunman. comes first. None of it helps to bring understanding to who Cho Seung-Hui was and why he did what he did.
Perceptions
Perceptions of Cho, as we shall refer to him, do not vary much because he was a reserved character in a culture that does not look kindly upon this characteristic.
The kid "didn't act fidgety, he just behaved normal," said John Markell, the shop owner from whom Cho bought the 9-millimeter Glock handgun 36 days before the shooting.
Virginia Tech student Charles Hsu (Chinese American) never knew Cho, but said, "I'm pretty in with the Asian crowd at Virginia Tech, but not many people knew him. I don't know how he went under our radar; usually Asian Americans tend to flock together."
Joe Aust, who shared the dormitory room with Cho, found him to be "always really, really quiet and kind of weird, keeping himself to himself all the time."
One teacher, Lucinda Roy, who felt intimidated by Cho, taught him individually in 2005. In her three sessions he always wore sunglasses and a baseball cap pulled low. She reflected, "He seemed to be crying behind his sunglasses."
Roy said she felt that Cho was suicidal and that she was "talking to a hole sometimes, as though the person wasn't really there."
She said that Cho's writings were weird.
A 21-year-old student recalled the time when he had lunch with Cho. The reason for the lunch was to see if Cho could be made to laugh.
"I didn't know him," the student said to Time. "He was quiet."
"We'd try to talk to him, but he barely responded. So one day my roommate challenged himself to get him to talk to us. We told him a joke." Cho did laugh that day.
Cho was majoring in English and attended a playwriting class where students submitted their work to all in the class. One classmate, Stephanie Derry, saw Cho's plays and found them to be "morbid and grotesque."
"He even wrote one play about students being stalked by a teacher."
The Invisible Student
"Morbid and grotesque." One wonders how much these adjectives describe Cho, or were they merely a reflection of the minds of the commentators themselves? Grotesqueness and morbidness are common features of many of the films produced today — someone is either being stalked, tortured, brutalized, posessed, or raped. How much do youth today mirror what they see legally available on screen? Yet, with all of these perceptions, to date, nothing points to what could have led to this slaughter.
The only thing that we can be certain of, from what people have said about Cho, is that no one knew him. People suffering from psychological problems who are taking antidepressants may be prone to violence as a result of the side effects of the medication, as is the case with Prozac. But in general, mentally ill people are more likely to hurt themselves than anybody else. What led Cho down the path that he chose (if, indeed, he chose it) still remains a mystery. Even more disconcerting are the videos of Cho, which portray a bizarre character. But what lies behind those videos is the crucial missing pieces of the puzzle, for even the experts have differing opinions of the personality portrayed in those videos.
One objective opinion is that of Robin Kowalski, a psychologist at Clemson University, South Carolina, who cowrote a comprehensive study on school shootings. Kowalski referred to five common factors found:
• An episode of acute rejection
• Teasing or bullying
• Preoccupation with death
• Underlying psychological problems
• Advance planning of the attack
Unfortunately, profiling students who might have traits of a school shooter is not productive, according to the Secret Service (UK), because "that can include a high percentage of students that have similar characteristics."
Cho Seung-Hui
Cho Seung-Hui's family immigrated to the United States from South Korea when he was 8 years old. Cho and his older sister belonged to what is referred to as a "1.5 generation": born in Asia but raised in the US. Cho's family was considered to be nice by the neighbors, and the father used to help the neighbors. Cho was exposed to a lot of taunts after he arrived in the US in 1992, because of his poor English. At high school, he was bullied because of his shyness and his accent.
Chris Davids, a student from Virginia Tech who graduated with Cho from Westfield High School said, "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."
"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 recalled in an interview with The Associated Press.
"As soon as he started reading, the whole class started laughing and pointing and saying, 'Go back to China,'" Davids said.
Cho's older sister Sun-Kyung was an over-achiever according to one her friends, Diana Hong. She was smart and accomplished, but she was worried about her younger brother. In general, Cho was not considered a typical Korean because he was so engrossed in American culture.
Cho went to bed early by campus standards — 9:30 p.m. — and was an early riser. Weeks before the incident and on the morning of the day of the slaughter, Cho woke up earlier than normal. He woke up at 5:30 a.m. and sat to work at his computer, according to his roommate Aust. Cho was observed taking a prescription medicine, but no one knew what it was. After his suicide, officials found prescription medicine for depression among Cho's effects.
Acculturation
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Acculturation is the process of adaptation and change that one goes through when one emigrates from one country to another. In general, a gap develops when the parents are busy trying to provide for the family while their children become acclimatized to the social values and traits of their new country. Not everyone survives — some come out stronger for the experience, others are debilitated by it. Some communities turn inwards in reaction to the hostility of their new environment. Much depends on the emotional and mental health, the strength, and the closeness of the family to cope with what they may face.
Depending on the family's relationship with its past and how that reflects into the present, there may be much pressure to succeed. I still recall a school friend who was always at the top of her class and a brilliant pianist, but toward the last two years of formal schooling, she cracked and became dependent on antidepressants. Working in the community, I came to know her brother who also became dependent on antidepressants. My Asian schoolmates were taunted because of their accents and the smell of their food from their packed lunches. Asian families were known for their skill, intelligence, and tradesmanship, but were often victimized by racist remarks, and their properties attacked or destroyed. The process of acculturation can take a heavy toll when the host community reacts against the presence of those from a visibly different culture.
Ed Bok Lee has passed his adolescent stage. A "thirty-something" new art poet, he too is of a generation that was born in Korea but raised in America. Maybe Cho sought creative writing to find his voice initially, his sense of self. For Lee, poetry is a means of touching the minds of others. "Societies who sing and tell stories are always the least neurotic," reflected Lee.
Instead of bullets, Lee uses poetry to show the hurt that can be caused by rejection:
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So don't trust nobody.
The Whites, they'll teach you
to hate yourself for being silent.
They'll punish you for fighting back.
They'll love the taste of your food and culture, and sister...
and yet spit you out.
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Performance poetry is a form used by many cultures to help identify and bring understanding to the pains of acculturation and injustice, and to aid the healing process. Harsh words are sometimes used to express the hurt. It can be a bitter pill to swallow that, a generation or two later, one is still seen as "the other," "the foreigner," "the alien."
US professor of ethnic studies Edward Taehan Chang commented on the media's reaction to the Virginia Tech killer being Asian:
"As we approach the 15th anniversary of the civil unrest in Los Angeles, the Korean American community here still vividly remembers how the mainstream media portrayed Korean immigrant merchants as gun-toting vigilantes, defending their stores as Los Angeles burned in 1992 — and we are still trying to overcome that stereotype. There are more than 500,000 Koreans in Los Angeles, the largest enclave outside of Asia, and this is the image many Americans have of them. … The reality, however, is that Cho came to the US when he was 8 years old and, at the time of his death, was 23 and an English major at Virginia Tech. In other words, he probably spoke fluent English and was culturally Americanized. He probably didn't know much about Korea and Korean culture. And yet the headlines will read: 'Seung-hui Cho from South Korea.'"
Family Centeredness to Individualism
Koreans raised in America are viewed as members of the 1.5 generation who became fluent in English by the time they reached high school. Korean families sacrificed much by working all day, but like many immigrant families, they left their children to raise themselves. Maybe Cho's was one such family. Cho's parents worked in a dry-cleaning business until they owned one, and they attended a Korean church, which helped to instill a sense of belonging.
After the incident, the Korean American community held prayer meetings and candlelight vigils, with a strong feeling of collective responsibility as they struggle to come to terms and understand what happened to Cho and how they missed the signs. As the family struggles to come to terms with what Cho did, his sister, Sun-Kyung Cho, said in a statement said, "We have always been a close, peaceful, and loving family. My brother was quiet and reserved, yet struggled to fit in. We never could have envisioned that he was capable of so much violence. He has made the world weep. We are living a nightmare."
Josephine Kim, a mental health expert specialized in depression among Korean Americans, saw Cho as someone who internalizes depression.
"They're not disruptive," said Kim. "Those students are withdrawn and isolated, and even though we see that as a problem, because it's not disruptive, often they slip through the cracks."
Korean society is a patriarchal society rooted in Confucianism, with a lot of pride and with the family being all-important. One submits self to the family, unlike in American culture, where the self does not. In the Korean view of mental illness, it is "a sign of bad blood or a sin to be depressed," said Kim.
"It's against our culture to talk about these things."
In a study funded by the University of Washington, Perceived Parent-Adolescent Relationships and Depressed Mood in Korean American Adolescents, Eunjung Kim noted the following signs of depression:
- In late adolescence, Asian American adolescents perceived higher depressed mood, lower parental warmth, and higher parent-adolescent conflict than their European American counterparts.
- Lower parental warmth and higher conflicts with parents were linked with depressed mood.
- Korean American adolescents experience more mental health problems than Chinese and Japanese American adolescents.
- Korean American adolescents scored higher on intergenerational conflicts and were less likely to seek social support than Chinese and Japanese American adolescents.
- Korean American adolescents' mental health is challenged by two cultures and acculturation.
Between parental and societal expectations, many conflicts arise when you add cultural polarity that feeds a growing generation gap. Feelings of:
- "My parent tells me what to do with my life, but I want to make my own decisions."
- "My parent tells me that a social life is not important at my age, but I think that it is."
- "I have done well in school, but my parents' academic expectations always exceed my performance."
- "My parent wants me to sacrifice personal interests for the sake of family, but I feel this is unfair."
- "My parents always compare me with others, but I want them to accept me for being myself."
- "My parents argue that they show me love by housing, feeding, and educating me, but I wish they would show more physical and verbal signs of affection."
- "My parents don't want me to bring shame upon the family, but I feel that my parents are too concerned with saving face."
- "My parents expect me to behave like a proper Korean boy or girl, but I feel my parents are being too traditional."
- "I want to state my opinion, but my parents consider it to be disrespectful to talk back."
- "My parents demand that I always show respect for elders, but I believe in showing respect only if they deserve it."
- "I feel a lot of things or problems I go through they can't relate to. … I mean, they've been living here a long time, but they don't know what goes around that much. They're very clueless on that part. … A lot of the problems I have I really can't tell my parents because I know they won't understand."
Parents, whatever happened to Cho, watch out and do not take for granted your children's needs or the environment in which you have chosen to live.
Adolescence can create great turmoil, and the support and unconditional love of a parent or a guardian will be the most precious gift that can help young people to stand on their feet and take their place in the world, for the future is theirs. We underestimate the power of unconditional love. With all the bigotry and judgment calls that are being made by those of influence in the world around us, let us not add to that the sea of inner conflict.
What keeps happening in schools and colleges up and down the US is a reminder that schools and colleges need to seriously take on the issues of bigotry, bullying, and racism, in a community education program that addresses the source of these problems: the homes from which students come.
Sources:
Chang, Edward Taehan. "Don't Look to Ethnicity for Answers to Virginia Tech Tragedy." LA Times Online. 18 April 2007.
Duffy, Michael. "Inside Cho Seung-Hui's Dorm." Time Online. 17 April 2007.
Fernandez, Manny, and Marc Santora. "Gunman Sowed Signs of Anger." NY Times Online. 18 April 2007.
Hauser, Christine. "Virginia Gunman Identified as a Student." NY Times Online. 17 April 2007.
Lee, Jean. H. "Virginia Korean Community Still Reeling." Newsvine. 22 April 2007.
MSNBC. "Ex-Classmates Said Gunman Was Bullied." 19 April 2007.
Potgieter, Lizette. "The Soul of Real Karaoke People." Seoul Today. 07/10/2006
Schwartz, John and Benedict Carey. "Experts Shy From Instant Diagnoses of Gunman's Mental Illness, but Hints Abound." NY Times Online. 20 April 2007.
Swann, Charlie and Jill Weissbrot. "A Generation in Transition: A Study of Korean-American Youth." Electronic Magazine of Multicultural Education. Spring 2000. Vol. 2, No. 1.
Tsai, Michelle. "Cho Seung Hui or Seung-Hui Cho?: How the Media Chose a Name for the Virginia Tech Gunman." Slate. 19 April 2007.
Veale, Jennifer. "South Korea's Collective Guilt." Time Online. 18 April 2007.
Westcott, Kathryn. "Cho Fits Pattern of Campus Killers." BBC News Online. 19 April 2007.
Zucchino, David and Richard Fausset. "Feds Seek to Understand Why Shooter Used Two Guns." LA Times Online. 18 April 2007.
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