Seung-Hui Cho: The Virginia Tech Massacre

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Seung-Hui Cho was a 23 year old senior that studied English at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia. On April 16, 2007 Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and injured 17 others in two separate attacks before taking his own life. This event is known as one of the deadliest shootings by a single gunman in the United States and worldwide.
When Cho was a young boy he had been described as shy and mild mannered. Family and classmates report that he never spoke much and they figured it was simply his personality. But in eighth grade he was diagnosed with selective mutism and he received therapy for this condition and also met with mental health counselors. But once he reached high school he then began to take initiative to apply for college on his own without any help and he asked to discontinue his therapy services, his parents saw these acts of autonomy as progress so they obliged his request.
Virginia Tech was not notified about his anxiety issues due to federal privacy laws and neither Cho nor his parents offered the information to the school when he applied and was accepted. One English professor found his writings that were laced with violence and anger disturbing and encouraged him to seek help (Johnson 2007). He also was investigated by the university for stalking and was declared mentally ill by a Virginia special justice which ordered him to find outpatient treatment.
His mental state during the time of the shooting is unknown. His roommates report that he had always had the same demeanor which was quiet, depressed and anti-social. Cho was almost unnoticeable on the campus of 31,000 students and no classmates found his mood or personality different from usual on the days prior to the event....

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Last week was the mark of seven years since this tragic event and still no one can explain what cause Seung-Hui Cho to take the actions that he decided to take. But this theory can help give insight on the internal conflicts that Cho may have been dealing with long before he was even a student at Virginia Tech.

Works Cited

Hutchison, Elizabeth. Dimensions of Human Behaviour. 4th ed. Los Angeles: SAGE, 2011. Print.
Johnson, Alex. "College Gunman Disturbed Teachers, Classmates." Gunman Disturbed Teachers, Classmates - US News - Crime & Courts - Massacre at Virginia Tech | NBC News. N.p., 18 Apr. 2007. Web. 25 Apr. 2014. .
"Personality." SparkNotes: Personality: Psychodynamic Theories. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2014. .

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