Mental-Health Records of Virginia Tech Killer Found
More than two years after the Virginia Tech massacre, the most deadly shooting in the nation's history, Virginia Tech officials have located gunman Seung Hui Cho's mental health records, the Collegiate Times and the Associated Press report.
Cho shot and killed 32 people on April 16, 2007, before turning one of his guns on himself. Though the quality and effectiveness of the mental-health treatment Cho received at Virginia Tech's counseling center have long been in question, records of Cho's visits to the center have been missing until now. Lawyers in a civil lawsuit found the files at a former counseling center employee's home.
Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine says the state will release the records as soon as possible and that state police are investigating how the records disappeared in the first place because it is illegal to remove confidential records from the center. Kaine also expressed disappointment that the criminal investigation into the shootings failed to uncover the files.
On the second anniversary of the shootings this past April, family members of two slain students sued the state, the school and its counseling center, several top university officials, and a local mental-health agency, claiming gross negligence in the series of events that cleared a path for Cho to carry out his killing spree.
Tags: colleges | Virginia Tech | school shootings | counseling
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Reader Comments
student mental health
I suffer from mental illness and I also attend college. The difference is desspite the stigma attached...I stay in treatment. Peggy of Ca is an example of why mental illness is still ignored and undertreated until it reaches crisis level! This kid had problems long before the shooting. Trust me, if everyone were scrutinized...no one would make it through a mental disability screening. The school is a place for education no treatment...their liabilty is limited.
student mental health
Cho existed prior to Virginia Tech admittance. Why has the focus been on what the school should have seen in the time he was there versus the previous years of his life? I think the mental health system has failed yet again, however, I feel the blame goes much further than the university.
student mental health
Ah, but remember, the Americans With Disabilities act guarantees access to everyone, that includes people with mental illness. He must not have met criteria for involuntary hospitalization, so.... what exactly were school officials supposed to do? Thier hands are tied by the federal government.
His rights are guaranteed, and as so often is the case, everyone else's are ignored. Welcome to the other side of civil rights.
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