Updated:At Least 33 Dead in Va. Tech Shooting

Apparently the shooter was a 24 year old male from China. I went to a university that had an engineering school that had a notorious reputation for a string of suicides among young Asian males from foreign countries. The typical story went as follows - the kid's parents shelled out a ton of money to send their kid to America to get a great university-level education in one of the "hard sciences," the parents put enormous pressure on the kid to excel, the kid felt really physically and emotionally distant from everything he knew (which, of course, was back in China, Japan, etc), and either the didn't perform as well in school as his parents expected and/or the kid became so isolated that he went insane. It sounds like this idiot snapped after his girlfriend boke up with him, but I would venture to guess that the break-up was simply the straw that broke the camel's back.

I do not mean to focus on the shooter at a time when so many are grieving about the victims, but I thought my personal college experience might be worth a read.

Just heard on this morning news conference that the shooter was actually Korean. 23 yrs old, English major, and I believe they said he was from Centreville, VA.

I guess we'll find out more later on.....

Cho Seng-Hui is his name, Big C does the name sound familiar?

Here's the article from Yahoo....

Va. Tech president: Gunman was student - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070417/ap_on_re_us/virginia_tech_shooting)

big C, first off i'm glad your ok. i'm not disagreeing with your post but i saw on tv this morning that the VT police thought the first shooting was an isolated event and more importantly, they had leads that lead them off campus. for those two hours in between the two shootings the police were following those leads. so yea, in hindsight, it's easy to say they should have locked down everything but at the time of the first shooting the police thought they were doing the right thing. anyways, i just wanted to put that out there. i didn't know if this was new information or not.

I don't doubt that they thought they were doing the right thing, but clearly they weren't. This is a question of competence and decision making, not intent. I just don't see how you don't err on the side of caution in a situation like this.

Im from SW Va, my family all went to VT, and my heart is breaking today for one of the most beautiful places in the country. I know that at a time like this we want to blame someone, but the only person to blame is the sick son of a bitch that did this. I can't blame VT officials. The first two shootings appeared domestic and isolated. Imagine shootings such as that taking place at a trailer park, and the local police try to shut down an entire city fearing additional shootings. A college campus like VT is pretty big, with thousands of students. When additional shootings did not take place for over two hours, who could have known he was going to other places on campus. No, I cannot blame VT officials no one couldve foresaw what happened. Im just sick and really down about the whole thing. God Bless VT.

I don't doubt that they thought they were doing the right thing, but clearly they weren't. This is a question of competence and decision making, not intent. I just don't see how you don't err on the side of caution in a situation like this.

Yeah I agree here. First off, school administrations priding themselves on keeping classes open at all times need to get a grip. College classes are not UN meetings, everyone will be just fine if you cancel classes. Your students will not be shortchanged learning opportunities by missing a day of classes; much less be shortchanged the opportunity to add skill sets and prepare for work life after college. College classes are not that effing important; the administration should have recognized that having everyone in class wasn't worth the risk given that the shooter was still at large.

If the shooter isn't in captivity, then you have to assume he's still a danger to people on your campus. Anything less is irresponsible.

Im from SW Va, my family all went to VT, and my heart is breaking today for one of the most beautiful places in the country. I know that at a time like this we want to blame someone, but the only person to blame is the sick son of a bitch that did this. I can't blame VT officials. The first two shootings appeared domestic and isolated. Imagine shootings such as that taking place at a trailer park, and the local police try to shut down an entire city fearing additional shootings. A college campus like VT is pretty big, with thousands of students. When additional shootings did not take place for over two hours, who could have known he was going to other places on campus. No, I cannot blame VT officials no one couldve foresaw what happened. Im just sick and really down about the whole thing. God Bless VT.

You don't have to foresee a tragedy of this proportion to know that if someone shot two people and they still are at large, then there's a risk they could shoot again.

You can't assume you know it's a domestic problem. You can't assume the crime is completed, once a man has crossed that line and actually taken someone's life, it becomes much easier for them to continue taking lives. You can't assume anything until the guy has been caught.

I mean, weigh the costs and benefits here. What are the benefits of keeping class open after the first two shootings? Very little. It's not like teachers can't work around a day of missed classes. It's not like your school loses any prestige for closing down. There's no benefit to keeping classes open in that situation. There's only a chance that the shooter is still armed and dangerous. There's no point in keeping class open, that decision was irresponsible.

Honestly, I've seen classes canceled quicker due to snow.

But just as the radio has said all day, today is not a day to point fingers in my opinion. The details will come and we'll find out more, but I am listening to the radio and all it's nothing but people bitching how the situation was handled.

Im from SW Va, my family all went to VT, and my heart is breaking today for one of the most beautiful places in the country. I know that at a time like this we want to blame someone, but the only person to blame is the sick son of a bitch that did this. I can't blame VT officials. The first two shootings appeared domestic and isolated. Imagine shootings such as that taking place at a trailer park, and the local police try to shut down an entire city fearing additional shootings. A college campus like VT is pretty big, with thousands of students. When additional shootings did not take place for over two hours, who could have known he was going to other places on campus. No, I cannot blame VT officials no one couldve foresaw what happened. Im just sick and really down about the whole thing. God Bless VT.

there is a gigantic difference between a college and a city. they could easily say classes are canceled no1 go to class stay inside.

Cho Seng-Hui is his name, Big C does the name sound familiar?

no it does not. im glad i never knew a bastard like that