Re: One theory on why the VT shooter did this


"8MilesHigh" <avianatrix@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1177101047.302425.248990@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Apr 20, 1:16 pm, "okerry" <oke...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I'm going to go out on a limb and make a prediction here:

I think it will eventually come out that this guy was sexually molested
and
maybe even tortured as a child. I believe the news kept saying he was
raised by a stepfather - no word on where the bio-dad is/was. It could
have
been the stepfather who molested him or just that the stepfather failed
to
protect him from the molester.

There was also an interview with a great-aunt still living in Korea who
says
that boy was never right, that he never spoke, that they all know
something
was seriously wrong with him but either didn't know what to do about it
or
simply tried to ignore it.

We have to view this family through a different lens. As Korean
immigrants, the whole family probably felt stignatized by any
imperfections in their children. Bad enough in Korea, worse here
where they were expecting to live up to US standards.

Cho may have just had a speech impediment which was blown out of
proportion and then ignored as a shameful thing - a thing that needed
to be hidden, so don't talk.

If the family had asked for help from the public schools, which they
would get immediately in No.Va for a speech problem, it would mean
admitting to a flaw which could cause the whole family shame.

I see Cho as a kid who was hustled through the system by his family,
and expected to never show his imperfection.




The great-aunt said that once the family moved to the USA when the boy
was
8, they were told he was autistic, but whether he ever got treatment for
autism or anything else I have not heard.


No, not autistic. I'd love to hear tiny's input on this.



The specialists now appear to refer to various symptoms as being 'on the
autism spectrum' rather than simply saying someone is or isn't autistic.
JMO but, were cho to be 'on the *autism spectrum* enough to exhibit the
severity of symptoms this great aunt referred to, I doubt very much he would
have or could have been in college as he was. kids whose autism causes them
to be withdrawn enough to be completely uncommunicative, in my experience,
aren't in a position to function at anything like schooling.

Although my grandson did exhibit certain of the autism symptoms at a very
early age, before he turned one year old, his development has been
completely different from the stereotype of autism as I knew it at the time.
He had the repetitive movements, which was the first thing that triggered my
worry about him. And he also had the fascination with watching things turn
in circles. Spinning the wheels on his little cars and watching them go
round and round. But as he's grown and developed, he's become very
communicative. Although we can't always understand his speech, he chatters
and chatters away. And with speech therapy, we are continually better able
to understand his words.

But I think the thing that has surprised me the most about him is his truly
happy, joyful personality. Oh, don't get me wrong, he still has *problems*,
mostly socialization problems. He is definitely behind socially with other
children his age, and doesn't really know how to 'fit in' socially with his
peers. But he is in no way withdrawn, nor is he a sullen child. He squeals
with laughter, his whole face lights up when he smiles or laughs. He is
unable to lie or be deceitful in any way. If he does something he
shouldn't, or breaks something, or spills something, he never tries to hide
it. One can *see* he is unable to 'hide it'. He will run to us and tell us
"I bwoke it, I sorry." He expresses emotions freely, admittedly awkward
much of the time, but other times he'll completely surprise us at his
expression of emotion. Sometimes he'll come sit beside me, give me a hug,
and say "I wuv you gumma", just as natural as can be, with genuine emotion
of love both in his tone and facial expression. In some areas he is slow in
learning, but in other areas he's at or above his age range.

It would seem to me that cho's extent of isolation from others has it's
roots in a severe mental illness, perhaps a personality disorder. But I
doubt very much that he would be classified as being on the autism spectrum.
Were that the case, IMO, the severity of his case would have him being one
of those poor kids, sitting in a corner, rocking back and forth continually,
banging his head against the wall. Not graduating from high school and
attending college. JMO.


td







Seems to me that a child this cold and withdrawn, who is known never to
speak, might make the perfect target for a predator - kind of like Tommy
and
Uncle Ernie.


Maybe. Or, by the age of 24, Cho was projecting his own sexual
fantasies on others. I'd like to know if he wrote about other sexual
perversions and what websites he visited for his sexual release.

Cho obviously projected a lot, in an effort to escape blame or
stigma. Whatever wildness ran through his imagination, he was running
from it as another example of his "imperfection".



I think that the "you" he keeps referring to in his taped diatribe is
the
molester and/or the stepfather, and I'll bet the "spoiled rich kids" he
talks about are not the other students but his older siblings whom he
may
have felt were favored and treated much better than he was. He has at
least
one older sister who went to or is going to Princeton, a very very
expensive
school. I don't know if this sister is a full sister or is the
stepfather's
child from an earlier relationship. Either way, something could have
made
him feel that they were favored and he was not.


Wow! Interesting. You might be on to something.



Edited to add: For whatever reason - cultural, personal, whatever - he
did
not feel he could strike back at his own family, so he took it out on
his
"extended family" - the university students.

Yep! He identified with his immigrant family very strongly. In a
twisted act of self preservation, he was NOT going to talk or share
his thoughts with a therapist because of the shame of those thoughts
and speech impediment.


He didn't go to a shopping
mall, or to some other school, or stand by the side of a highway
shooting
total strangers. This was done in his own house, so to speak, to people
who
in a sense were his brothers and sisters and even parents (professors
and
instructors were also killed and injured).

Damn good stuff.



I'd sure like to know why he zeroed in on that girl in the dormitory the
very first thing. Did she remind him of his sister somehow?

I could be wrong, of course, but that sure it how it all strikes me.
Your
mileage may vary.

You've made some really good points! Got me intrigued, at least. I'm
doubtful of the autistic or schizophrenic diagnoses but lean more
towards depression with psychotic features (in my amateur opinion.)



I hope that if nothing else, the laws can be changed so that someone who
is
not just "a little weird" but clearly has a whole list of abnormal
behaviours going on can get the help they need and the rest of us can be
protected from their madness, no matter what its cause.

Public mental hospitals no longer exist in the sense that some people
should be kept out of society but not in prison. So we are screwed
there.

I was watching a show about "Islam in the US" the other night. The
indigenous Muslims in this country are making a special point of
reaching out to the new immigrant Muslims, who attend Mosques with
their homeland values, to make sure they know what the US has to
offer, that shame is not the same here as in Pakistan for instance.

The US Muslims don't want to see honor killings happen here, or family
problems be hidden for fear of shame until they explode. They want
strict foreign Muslims to see that all our freedoms aren't bad.

Perhaps more strict immigrant communities should think in these terms,
so their kids with cerebral palsy can go to school rather than hidden
in back rooms and kids like Cho can get treated.

At any rate, Cho should have been specifically diagnosed by therapists
and speech pathologists years ago. We wouldn't be here today if he
had been.

bel




.

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