Cho's Parents Suffering from Shock Are Hospitalized

Hopefully they'll recover soon and then give their a son a decent burial.

Miller--

They may bury their beloved, flawed son but their agony will continue for the rest of their lives.

The poor parents - they will have to live with the guilt (could we have done something), plus the death of their son. They will never be the same.

Anyone hear how his sister is doing?

No reports of where the sister is.

I just recalled that immediately prior to his murdering the students, Cho was reported by his roommate to have taken "his medication".

Whatever his medication was, it didn't stop his thoughts of violence.

BBB
I think people need to reach out to the Korean community to assure them that there will not be a backlash against them and other Asians. Koreans are suffering shame as is typical of their culture. Some Korean students are leaving Virginia Tech because they fear a backlash.

BBB

Cultural Identifiers and the Cho Killings
Letter to Editors and Publishers
4/20/07
Cultural Identifiers and the Cho Killings

I don't think the media should keep referring to this Cho Seung-Hui as a South Korean. It appears they emphasize this point and I wonder why? The fact is, he was just an 8-year-old kid when he came to the U.S. with his parents and he had been living in the U.S. for 15 years.

There is an old saying "it takes a whole neighborhood to raise a kid." It would seem more reasonable to assume, that his "condition" may have more to do with the influence of American upbringing, not Korean. These "violent video games" I read about that he liked to play, did not originate in Korea! The violent movies and the barrage of repetitious "police" programs you see constantly airing on TV, did not originate in Korea. ...

I think it is high time for serious "self-reflection" in the U.S. and to accept responsibility for the violence-laden mentality that has been permeated throughout society. If not, we will just keep reading about more future Columbines and repeated Virginia Tech-type massacres!

And coming up with ten trillion new "laws" is not going to accomplish anything either. Merely wishing for a "kinder, gentler nation" is not going to happen by itself. It is time to start addressing basic core values, moral issues and STOP ALREADY with the over saturation of police programs on TV and violent video games and movies where people blow each other up or shoot and kill one another!

Wayne Kearns
Montreal, Quebec
Canada

AMEN!
I'm looking for one little shred of hope- does anyone know if any of the same sentiments have been expressed by any Americans (in power) or even just plain, old citizens?

The lack of any kind of consciously enlightened, solution oriented soul searching around this issue is what makes me feel the most depressed and hopeless about the whole thing- there just seems to be an aura of acceptance and almost relief in being able to say, "Oh well, another isolated incident of some nut case".

But it's not an isolated incident- and more and more young adults are depressed and on medication in the US- more and more children under the age of ten as well- this has to tell us something about our society.

Unless it is found that there was abuse in this guys background (apart from the taunting of his peers- which is abuse) we have to look outside his family for reasons- unless we're willing to accept that some people are just born "bad seeds".

Did you read an essay in this past week's NYTimes about "Free Will"?

If you inherit a genetic makeup that makes you psychotic, how can anyone possibly think you've got free will relative to your actions?

Cho was autistic: family
Seoul, South Korea

April 21, 2007 - 11:46AM


Virginia Tech gunman Seung-hui Cho was diagnosed with autism after the family emigrated to the United States, a relative in South Korea says.

"From the beginning, he wouldn't answer me," Kim Yang-soon, Cho's great aunt, said in an interview Thursday. He "didn't talk. Normally sons and mothers talk. There was none of that for them. He was very cold".

"When they went to the United States, they told them it was autism," said Kim, 85, adding that the family had constant worries about Cho.

Cho's uncle gave a similar account, but said there were no early indications that the South Korean student who killed 32 people and himself at Virginia Tech University in the US had serious problems. The uncle asked to be identified only by his last name, Kim.

Cho "didn't talk much when he was young. He was very quiet, but he didn't display any peculiarities to suggest he may have problems," Kim told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Thursday. "We were concerned about him being too quiet and encouraged him to talk more."

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that encompasses a broad range of symptoms frequently including impaired social interaction and communication, as well as obsessive interests and behaviour. Autism remains a topic of heated debate in the scientific community, where little is understood about its cause.

Cho left South Korea with his family in 1992 to seek a better life in the United States. Since the shooting, the US government has been providing protection for Cho's parents, South Korea's ambassador to Washington said today.

"We've confirmed that the parents are being safely protected by US investigative authorities," Ambassador Lee Tae-sik told MBC Radio.

Lee said US authorities declined to say where the parents were "because they move from place to place everyday."

Kim, the uncle, said the family never visited their homeland and that he did not recognise his nephew when his picture appeared on television as the culprit in the deadliest shooting rampage in US history.

"I am devastated," Kim said between heavy sighs. "I don't know what I can tell the victims' families and the US citizens. I sincerely apologise ... as a family member."

In South Korea, Cho's parents ran a small book store in Seoul, Kim said. The family lived in a two-room apartment no larger than 40 square metres (430 square feet).

"They had trouble making ends meet in Korea. The book store they had didn't turn much profit," Kim said.

He said his sister - Cho's mother - occasionally called around holidays, but never mentioned having any problems with her son.

"She said the children were studying well. She didn't seem worried about her children at all," Kim said. "She just talked about how hard she had to work to make a living, to support the children."

He said he has been unable to reach Cho's mother since Monday's massacre. She and her husband now work at a dry cleaners in suburban Washington.

Meanwhile, the headquarters of South Korea's largest Buddhist sect, Jogye, held a memorial service for the Virginia Tech victims, offering flowers and incense on a mourning altar. Hanging in the temple's courtyard were 33 white lotus lanterns with the names of the dead, including the killer, Cho.

"They're all like my children. I will pray for the poor souls who lost their lives to reach nirvana," Buddhist follower Lee Yeon-sook, 68, said during the service.

The Age

Is autism always associated with violence? Or was Cho's violence not due to his autism?

I'm not a Mental Health Expert, but from what I've read autistic children don't particularly care about other people. Love and hate both imply involvement and autistic children are simply not socially involved.

I had heard/read a few years back about a similarity between the physical and behavioral symptoms of schizophrenia and autism and when I looked up the article, it linked them both to the inability to metabolize a protein in milk. The article went on to say that when diet was changed eight of ten people had their behavioral symptoms of childhood autism and schizophrenia alleviated.
It just seems unrealistic to believe that if this had been a legitimate study (from l999) with those results- we'd be seeing mass numbers of people who suffered with autism and schizophrenia taking this relatively easy cure. Here's a link to the article:
http://www.napa.ufl.edu/99news/autism.htm

But just as this article states that autism and schizophrenia seem to both have a genetic component, although not a singular genetic flaw in either and more likely a combination of genetic abnormalities in both- I don't think autism on its own would cause a person to be a mass murderer.

I think this guy had a deadly combination of influences. The combination of his obsessive nature, the availability of violent video games and music and media that fed into that obsession, the availability of the role models of isolated and deranged and violent role models enacting his own obsessions, the derision he endured in his life that fed his resentment and anger, his inability to relate appropriately (though he obviously wished to at least try) that fed his sense of isolation and hopelessness. I think maybe if any one of those things had been different, there might have been a different outcome.

In terms of his diagnosis- was he ever officially diagnosed? Or was that just what his family in S. Korea thought? I'm not clear on that point.

It was a family member in S. Korea who told the press that Cho was autistic. However, no reports exist ( as far as i know ) that indicate a diagnosis of autism was ever made in the US.

I wonder if his problem had its roots in simple voice immodulation, and if that is what precipitated his silence. If he didn't like the sound of his own voice, or if it drew taunts and teasing whenever he spoke, maybe he just decided not to speak. And maybe he just retreated into self-loathing that he never communicated to anyone.

It doesn't sound to me that he evidenced the behaviors typical of a person with autism. There are no accounts of self-stimming even as a young child in S. Korea, he was able to make it through school without extra help (especially organizational help, which is what most people with autism- no matter how bright they might be- all seem to need), and most telling, he was able to hide what he really was and thought from his family.
That's one thing that people with autism-even the most mild cases- are unable to do. They are unable to play the social games we all play by deciding what to reveal about ourselves and what not to reveal. There is no difference in what people with autism will say to who, where and when- it's all the same to them. The fact that his sister said, "I grew up with this person and loved him, but now I feel that I didn't even know who he was" is indicative to me that he wasn't truly autistic.

But if he was, it's not surprising he wasn't tagged in the US public school system. Quiet, well-behaved, smart and yes, I'll say it- Asian kids- are rarely referred for special services or diagnosis by the teachers or by their parents. While native born American children are often referred by their parents for services and a label to gain their kids accomodations so that they can achieve more (with help)- Asians tend to have the attitude that it's better to rely on their own steam. So when you do get an Asian kid who does legitimately have a learning disability-it's an uphill battle to get permission to have him/her tested and diagnosed so they can receive services.
My son had such a friend, a Japanese boy who was very smart, but had a written language disability and he told me he'd never been tested because his parents would have none of any of that for him. I used to help him organize his thoughts and papers-and as long as it was done unofficially it was okay- but his parents didn't want him labeled.

The family members to whom the Press has been speaking to haven't seen the family for over a decade and I can't help but wonder how they could know so much about them Surely, Cho's mother never reported back to her relatives, that Cho ws autistic.