Where is seung hui cho now
Cho was known as a shy child who liked basketball and did well in math. But according to an article in Newsweek magazine, Cho was also bullied by other children, including wealthy members of his church. In high school, Cho was described as sullen and aloof.
After graduating in , he went on to study at Virginia Tech University. Located in Blacksburg, Virginia, the school has an extensive campus with more than 30, students residing there. Cho stood out as a near-silent loner who wrote gruesome poems, stories and plays.
He sometimes referred to himself as "Question Mark. One professor, poet Nikki Giovanni, had him removed from her class for disturbing the other students. She told TIME magazine that "there was something mean about this boy. Cho was also photographing the legs and knees of female students in the class. Other members of the English department faculty were concerned about him as well. Lucinda Roy, the co-director of the school's creative writing program, took him out of class and tutored him individually.
She also encouraged Cho to get counseling. In addition to his odd behavior and dark writings, Cho exhibited other potential warning signs. A suicidal statement by Cho to a suitemate led to him being taken to a psychiatric hospital in December of that year. He was soon released with orders to receive therapy as an outpatient. Documents released in June indicate that he did attend at least one court-ordered counseling session at the Cook Counseling Center.
She was from a well-educated family of North Korean landowners, who had been forced to flee without possessions during the Korean war; he was from a poor family in the south, but had made enough money to marry by working in Saudi Arabia for 10 years on construction sites and oil fields.
As Hyang-im was 29 - a late age for a woman to find a husband in South Korea - her father told her she had to accept the proposal. But she always followed and obeyed him. She never fought him, though sometimes I wish she had done. But they were unnerved by his sullenness.
His extreme shyness worried his parents. I thought he might be deaf and dumb. Schoolmates interviewed by local media said they remembered Cho as quiet and nondescript. His former teacher, Noh Yong-gil, has no recollection of him. But the father doted on his son and daughter. He would have done anything for them," the grandfather recalled. It's as if everything they've done, the reason for their whole existence has been for nothing.
It's as if they've not lived at all. The family moved to the US in Cho, 23, grew up on a quiet cul-de-sac where neighbors waved a friendly hello, but would later say they hardly knew he existed.
He attended a mostly white high school that installed round tables in the lunchroom to encourage students to interact, but Cho barely spoke a word. And he was raised in a South Korean family and culture that so values boys his mother once told her employer that she wished her son had attended Princeton instead of her daughter.
Asian immigrants tend to emphasize education and success, and by all accounts, the Chos were no exception. Chang, professor of ethnic studies at UC Riverside and an immigrant himself, you are either a success or a failure.
Sung-tae and Hyang-im Cho were ambitious and apparently educated because after they settled on the still semi-rural outskirts of Seoul, they bought a used-book store. But one relative said the bookstore just eked out a profit. Back home, his wife gave birth March 22, , to their daughter, Sun-kyung.
On Jan. Cho attended an elementary school a short walk from his home. About students attend today, about half the number when Cho was there. The cluster of three-story buildings frames a large, U-shaped dirt courtyard. The school files contain only a single sheet of paper on Cho, showing he left the school in August , at age 8, after partially completing second grade. The young Cho left little impression on those he might have met.
Sketchy recollections in the South Korean media all emphasize his shyness, a trait that would follow him throughout his life. His grandfather and great-aunt, both in their 80s, still live in Seoul. Though they met Seung-hui only twice, and had not seen him for years when his face appeared on front pages and TV screens last week, they said they remembered him as a troubled boy uncomfortable with affection.
And that symptom got worse when they went to America. Members of the extended family lived in America. The Chos arrived in America in September Their early years were difficult.
She called her relatives in South Korea only on holidays and kept the calls short. They were so proud of their new home that they sent photos to loved ones in South Korea. People on the block are friendly from a distance, but rarely get to know one another. Cho graduated from Westfield High School in But there is no mention of him in that yearbook, not so much as a senior picture.
The high school, which opened in , is stocked with high achievers.