Professor recalls ‘mean streak’:
Please read the words of Virginia Tech professor Nikki Giovanni. Ms. Giovanni taught one of Cho’s writing classes. She’s not buying into the whole “troubled kid” crap.
“I knew when it happened that that’s probably who it was,” Giovanni said, referring to her former pupil. “I would have been shocked if it wasn’t.”
Cho’s poetry was so intimidating — and his behavior so menacing — that Giovanni had him removed from her class in the fall of 2005, she said. Giovanni said the final straw came when two of her students quit attending her poetry sessions because of Cho.
“I was trying to find out, what am I doing wrong here?” Giovanni recalled thinking, but the students later explained, “He’s taking photographs of us. We don’t know what he’s doing.”
Giovanni went to the department’s then-chairwoman, Lucinda Roy, and told her, “I was willing to resign before I was going to continue with him.” Roy took Cho out of Giovanni’s class.
“I know we’re talking about a troubled youngster and crap like that, but troubled youngsters get drunk and jump off buildings; troubled youngsters drink and drive,” Giovanni said. “I’ve taught troubled youngsters. I’ve taught crazy people. It was the meanness that bothered me. It was a really mean streak.”
No one should take pity on Cho Seung-Hui. He is not a victim. He was not “troubled”. He was nothing more than an insane, selfish, coward.
Real Crime with Trench Reynolds 
Trench, your badness, I have just tripped over your page on my way to other things. I have read Giovanni’s comments on trying to cope with an asocial student who turned out to be not just”…troubled…but insane, selfish and a coward.” And killed more people on one day in the life than anyone in American history. I am pleased to read your comments, too, Trench. Your condemnation will reach others who glorify the art of revenge but know when to call it a night. Peace my friend.
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You’re absolutely right he wasn’t a victim. The thing with spree killers is they tend to see themselves as victims and they usually have a long list of injustices that they think have been committed against them, but that doesn’t mean they are victims. Saying he was “troubled” is a monumental understatement.
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Yes. I think you could drop “insane”, even. Just a cowardly egomaniac.
He clearly desired to be famous in death, also. I know this is an area of speciality for you, and people will be looking to you for insight, etc. but I’m personally not going to reward him by adding to that. I will pop in here or Crimeblog US occaisionally, but I won’t visit NBC, watch his video, read his words. In my daily life, I won’t discuss him with anyone. He never existed, for me. And that’s the last I’ll ever write about him.
Trench, I sent you a message on another topic. I realize you are bust with this, but I hope you’ll reply to my other message sometime. Some people (like me) do hold you in some esteem so I think you’re comments re Griffis could do a grave dis-service on the subject. He was never a legitimate expert.
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I got the e-mail Roy. I’m just swamped right now.
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In a culture obsessed with celebrity, is it any wonder that some people will do ANYTHING it takes to be remembered? Cho was clearly overlooked by his peers, but now his notoriety speaks volumes the world over. In essence, we’ve given him exactly what he wanted.
Roy, i think you’re doing the best thing possible by denying his existence. I wish more would. That way we might not have encountered this morbid fascination spreading across the internet. It frightens me to think that people have time, energy and in some ways enough respect for someone like Cho to produce countless blogs essentially in his name and promoting his cause.
I live in the UK, and our news channels have been non-stop live from Virginia. What happened to letting the mourners grieve in peace? Surely this intrusion at a time like this only hinders?
WE demand to be fed by the media in this way, and for that, i feel ashamed.
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Wrong. Cho was not overlooked. Several people reached out to him and Cho chose to be an outcast.
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Good Evening Trench.
I was under the impression that this website encouraged debate and discussion rather than rights and wrongs.
Having said that, you are absolutely right and i hold my hands up to that. I should have said (typed?) Cho clearly FELT overlooked by his peers.
Apologies for the confusion.
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My apologies. For obvious reasons I’ve been a little on edge lately and have been dealing with my fair share of people who have been blaming everything but the shooter himself.
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Oh, it’s quite alright.
I think your site is a great find, by the way. This will sound sycophantic, but it’s not often you stumble across something that makes such sense.
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Virginia Tech – We are to blame
A friend asked me if this incident was bad timing that was going to hurt the sales of my book Almost Columbine. First of all, when thirty American students die violently like this, I could care less about book sales. I felt that I had to explain that I wrote Almost Columbine in order help people understand why these events keep happening and hopefully to spread enough understanding so that they won’t happen again. Apparently the word is very slow to spread.
What I learned as a disaffected youth was that my own beliefs and lack of connection with reality was what allowed me to slip so far outside the mainstream. I adopted ideas suggesting that violence was the only was anyone would notice me and my problems. I believed that hurting those I so despised would bring about justice in my world. I isolated myself and for a long time, no one reached out to me. In the end my friends saw what all my ranting and anger were leading towards and they managed to stop me. That is why the book is called Almost Columbine. I didn’t go through with it because a handful of people cared enough to hold me back right when I needed it the most.
The unfortunate truth about Virginia Tech is that this Korean kid was so isolated that he had no one to pierce his false reality. He had no one to bring him back to earth, to moderate his extreme tendencies. It’s easy for us all to sit back and accuse him of being crazy but that relieves us of any responsibility. There are simply too many people, who often exist right in front of us everyday, who are ignored or shunned for being even a little different. How can we still be surprised when these people snap? What is it going to take before we finally reach out to everyone, especially the loners, and show them that they too belong with the rest of us.
As with all the other school shootings that have happened over the last thirty years – this too could have been avoided.
Alex Hutchinson
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