What Went Wrong?
The insanity and mayhem unleashed at Virginia Tech was a random and rare event. But unlike some unfathomable crimes, this one has a long enough trail of miscalculation and oversight to raise serious questions about safety on campus. The shooter's troubling behavior, his gun purchases, and the campus response on the day of the shooting all hold broader lessons for other colleges, where security issues are notoriously swept out of sight and statistics are hard to come by
Involuntary commitments are exceedingly rare and are ordered only if the person appears in imminent danger, a point of frustration for counselors and family members worried about the safety of someone who is seriously ill. People whose mental problems make them suspicious and paranoid, as Cho appeared to be, often don't recognize that others could help, Shapiro says. "If they're not in sufficient trouble where they're compelled to talk to someone, they get isolated."
It seems clear now that Cho had been isolated, and deeply troubled, for years. Classmates at Westfield High School in Chantilly, Va., say he was bullied for being shy and having an accent. An uncle back in South Korea says that Cho was so quiet as a young boy that some people thought he was mute. But the profile that has emerged of a socially awkward, morose young adult could easily fit a good chunk of the 17 million students on American college campuses. Almost 10 percent of college students say they've seriously considered committing suicide. Thirty-seven percent say they've been so depressed it was difficult to function. More than 30 percent of freshmen say they're feeling overwhelmed a great deal of the time.
"You're supposed to be happy," says Eric Heiligenstein, a psychiatrist who is clinical director for mental health services at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "College is supposed to be a great time." But that's not the reality for many young adults. In any given year, 14.8 percent of college students say they have been diagnosed with depression. It's also the age when people have the most trouble with drug and alcohol abuse. And it's when serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder start manifesting themselves, as the long process of brain development that began in the womb nears completion. Add to that the fact that students feel far more pressured by the high cost of college and the need to excel than in generations past, and it's no wonder that for many, the stresses of college are just too much.
In the past 10 years, much scientific effort has gone into trying to figure out a way to "profile" school shooters and other students who pose a threat so that they can be stopped before they act. A 2000 study of school shooters by the Secret Service found that there is no one profile: The shooters came from many different racial and ethnic backgrounds; were rich and poor, excellent students and D-minus types, socially isolated and popular.
Attempts to identify those who will commit suicide have been equally fruitless. One reason is that not many people kill themselves. Although about 6 percent of people think about committing suicide in a given year, less than 1 percent try, and of those, less than 1 in 70 succeeds. People who are intent on suicide often hide the fact. Suicide risk assessment protocols used by psychotherapists fail miserably at predicting who's most at risk; rather, they're intended to help pinpoint the patient's concerns. "You can't prevent these things," says Gregory Eells, director of student counseling at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. "You can do some things to reduce risk."
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