When something as tragic as the Virginia Tech shootings happens, there are certain emotions that stream through the mind of the general populace: shock, saddness, anger. And when you get to the anger stage, you wanna blame someone. And it's perfectly understandable.
The shooting was Cho Seung-Hui's fault. That much is true. He was the one who bought the guns and carried out the deed, but new details have recently came to light.
There were warning signs, as it seems there usually are in these cases. He'd been involved in three stalking incidences and the plays he'd written are aptly described as coming from an extremely disturbed mind. (The plays can be found here.) As most who are following the story know, these clues were not lost on those who were around him and had contact with him. The link I provided is to an AOL blog of someone who was actually in his class. This guy describes what it was like to be in a class with him, to read these plays he wrote. It's chilling.
Mr. MacFarlane, in his blog, says something with the gist that: if there was a place he could've gone to to notify people about Cho, he would've done it. And you know, a lot of people have probably felt that way too. Maybe not about Cho, but about someone else.
The fact of the matter is: it's frustrating when you're a young person and know someone who seems to be mentally ill and who's most likely in need of psychiatric attention. There's just not a lot you can do about it. Everyone is so concerned about patient's rights and privacy, it seems that it hampers the patient's (or potential patient's) recovery. Who cares about privacy if someone is in desperate need of psychiatric care, like Cho? That's one thing I've never been able to understand.
In my experience, patients have to sign a release form saying that their doctors can talk to you. Now, mentally ill people are not stupid. They're not necessarily gonna sign any random form that's waved in front of their face. And, in my opinon -- and probably many other's -- this just isn't good, because it would really be beneficial to the proper diagnosis of the patient if their family and friends could give their insight. It's not about taking away the right's of the ill person -- it's actually about giving them more rights: their family can better look after them and help their recovery if they actually know what's going on!
There needs to be resources for the people who are concerned about people like Cho. Because Cho never made any explicit threats, going to the police probably (I don't guess) wasn't an option. So, really, a mental health facility -- or something along those lines -- would've been the best preventative option. If Cho really was mentally ill, then perhaps this never have happened if there was an intervention and he got the help he needed.
But I didn't write this blog to just assign blame. I want to offer my thoughts and prayers to everyone affected by this tragedy. Lots of people lost loved ones, the school was traumatized. And I just hope this never happens again, because it seems it happens all too often.
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