I’m a retired English as a second language teacher. I have taught many children and young adults who remind me of Cho Seung-hui. Often they remain withdrawn and shy for years until they begin to feel comfortable with their new culture.
Other children tease them unmercifully. If they are not strong, they can suffer serious emotional consequences. Kids want to fit in. If they have no friends and are loners to begin with, coming to a strange country can make them really crazy. I remember on young Chinese boy after his first day in kindergarten.
He screamed all day and had to be removed. No one spoke his language but a cousin who was in the sixth grade. Can you imagine a five year old in this situation.
It is difficult enough for American children who can understand the language of the teacher. I can remember also a sixth grade boy who almost choked another boy who was mocking his Chinese eyes by stretching his own eyes and laughing at the new boy in class. My heart goes out to the family who must be in shock and despair about their son's behavior and death.
My concern about Cho is that no one seemed to have cared that he was in trouble all the years he was in elementary, middle and high school.
Early intervention with therapists who could speak Korean might have saved this boy. But it appears that his strange behavior was seen by many in his early years but never treated.
An article in the Washington Post had comments from Cho's former middle school classmates. They said he talked to himself and never talked to anyone in the school. Teachers just passed over him and pretended he wasn't there. My heart goes out to this boy's family and I pray every night for him. I also grieve for his victims and their families.
Pam Ruigh