Giovanni taught killer

How do we prevent the sort of break down that occurred at Virginia Tech in the future. As I stated in an earlier post, more restrictions on guns is not the answer. He obtained the guns used legally, and he had no real criminal record. There were indications of such a break down might occur in his writing according to the article below from his English teachers. There were also police contacts with a stalking case from 2005, but because no one pressed charges he ended up with no criminal record to prevent gun purchases. He was even submitted to a mental health facility for fear of him committing suicide. If no one presses charges in these sorts of cases, and the person is evaluated by a mental health facility, how do we prevent this from happening again? How do we walk the line of protection of privacy, and the protection of the public?

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Poet describes Virginia Tech shooter as 'mean' student

Former Cincinnatian Nikki Giovanni, a Virginia Tech professor, says she wasn’t surprised when officials identified one of her former students as the gunman in the campus massacre.

"I knew when it happened that that's probably who it was. I would have been shocked if it wasn't," Giovanni told CNN, referring to Cho Seung Hui, a 23-year-old senior English major.

"I've taught troubled youngsters. I've taught crazy people. It was the meanness that bothered me. It was a, really, mean streak."

Giovanni, other English professors and Cho’s classmates were alarmed by his class writings - pages filled with twisted, violence-drenched writing.

"It was not bad poetry. It was intimidating," Giovanni said.

Giovanni said her students were so unnerved by Cho's behavior, including taking pictures of them with his cell phone, that some stopped coming to class and she had security check on her room. She eventually had him taken out of her class, saying she would quit if he wasn't removed.

Giovanni, a poet well-known in Cincinnati, delivered an inspiring message to close the campus convocation in honor of the victims Tuesday. ( (Watch the video).

Lucinda Roy, a co-director of creative writing at Virginia Tech, said she tutored Cho after he left Giovanni’s class.

"He was so distant and so lonely," she told ABC's "Good Morning America" Wednesday. "It was almost like talking to a hole, as though he wasn't there most of the time. He wore sunglasses and his hat very low so it was hard to see his face."

Roy also described using a code word with her assistant to call police if she ever felt threatened by Cho, but she said she never used it.

Cho's writing was so disturbing, though, he was referred to the university's counseling service, said Carolyn Rude, chairwoman of the university's English department.

In screenplays Cho wrote for a class last fall, characters throw hammers and attack with chainsaws, said a student who attended Virginia Tech last fall. In another, Cho concocted a tale of students who fantasize about stalking and killing a teacher who sexually molested them.

"When we read Cho's plays, it was like something out of a nightmare," former classmate Ian MacFarlane, now an AOL employee, wrote in a blog posted on an AOL Web site.

"The plays had really twisted, macabre violence that used weapons I wouldn't have even thought of."

CHO ACCUSED OF STALKING

Cho was been accused of stalking two female students and had been taken to a mental health facility in 2005 after an acquaintance worried he might be suicidal, police said Wednesday.

Cho had concerned one woman enough with his calls and e-mail in 2005 that police were called in, said Police Chief Wendell Flinchum.

He said the woman declined to press charges, and neither woman was among the victims of Monday's massacre on the Virginia Tech campus.

During the stalking second incident, also in late 2005, the department received a call from an acquaintance of Cho's who was concerned that he might be suicidal, and Cho was taken to a mental health facility, Flinchum said. About the same time, in fall 2005, Cho's professor informally shared some concerns about the young man's writing but no official report was filed, he said.

Flinchum said he knew of no other police incidents involving Cho until the deadly shootings Monday, first at a girl's dorm room and then a classroom building across campus. Neither of the stalking victims was among the victims.