Why not blame the bullies for Virginia Tech?

I disagree - no one is responsible except for Cho. Other people get picked on and they don't go on murderous rampages. The fact that he snapped because he didn't fit in just goes to show he had some mental problems and did need counciling.

I agree with you somewhat. While some pople have responded that being bullied doesn't turn you into a murderer (and that is certainly true, most people can withstand this kind of stuff)it can't have helped. Cho was a psychologically weak young man and we can't stop them from being born, so the question that we should be asking is - what can we do to stop someone like cho from snapping? I think that schools have become such hostile places that we are in danger of leaving our kids with a bleak world view where practically everyone is an enemy and there is no compassion or kindness.

If I weren't already in love with somebody else, I just might ask you to marry me! Seriously, I'm glad to have come across you--and, while I haven't asked you to marry me, I've invited you to be my friend. I hope you'll accept, because you're my kind of person! Over and over and over again, this kind of thing happens--and over and over and over again, people just don't get it! Thank you for having a clue! I see that you were born in 1964, so you were just a tot when young people were going to San Francisco with flowers in their hair. I had just graduated from eighth grade at that time, so I lived through it--even though my trip to San Francisco that year was part of a family vacation instead of going as a hippie to become a resident of the Haight-Asbury area. Although at least some of my views were more conservative than your average hippie of that time, I consider myself to be one of them to this day in the message they were sending about peace and love--and I keep asking, "What happened?" When did we get away from all of that peace and love philosophy and start going for the throat? When did cruelty become trendy? There has always been teasing--and even some bullying--in schools, but when did it become such a sport while teachers nod and wink? I neither condone nor excuse opening fire on others--and (from what I've read about them0 those students and teachers who ended up receiving the rage of this disturbed, young man were, more likely than not, the kind of people who would be wanting to reach out and help him--I place the biggest part of the blame on those people who bullied him over the years and for all of those teachers who not only let it go on but even, at times, participated! Take a newspaper... If I were to get that newspaper, pour some lighter fluid on it, and strike a match to it--after which, I would leave it on a coffee table in the living room of a house--and, if people saw it happening but nobody tried to stop me--would the newspaper be to blame when the entire house caught on fire and burned to the ground?

I don't like how he was said to be a danger to others and should be hospitalized but he was still let loose. And with bullying, I believe most schools aren't doing a thing about, well at least the schools in my area. Most teachers and security officers are too lazy and don't really care about bullying unless it gets too out of hand but even the slightest physical or verbal abuse can trigger mental trama and drive some of these kids to obtain a weapon and wreak havoc on society.

I think you have a point. Of course what he did was not ok but he was insane so he did not know what he was doing. The people who drove him insane do share some of the blame and our society needs to recognize that. By the time he went to college it was probably too late. But if someone had done something earlier. Immigrants are treated really badly in this country, they are stereotyped against and told they are less than human. It is horrible and in light of what happened people should reach out and tell immigrants that they are people to and the people who bully them should be punished. There is definitely something to be learned from this. I just hope that something will be done to help people like him before something worse happens.

I have a question.. why are we always wanting to place the blame on someone? He's a disturbed kid. End. I hate how society is always looking for a scapegoat.

No matter where you go in life...from childhood on through adulthood....we are always going to have to deal with bullies. How we deal and confront them is a direct reflection upon our mental state. As we get older those confrontations still occur, from a physical confrontation to more of a mental or social one but it still happens. Had he been more socially adjusted he would have seen that no matter what they did, no matter how he may have been rejected by a love interest, it should never reflect on him as a person. If you allow what others do to effect you then you are putting the cause of all your problems on someone else. And ultiimatly we are responsible for only ourselves. What I feel needed to be done was once the signs were recognized that he did have problems he should have been removed from that environment until he sought help that would bring him back to center. This would have to have been done with a caring and understanding of where he was. Not just kicked out. His outlook on life became, they are all against me, and that is always a recipe for disaster. The reason people begin to put tags on what he was is an attempt to understand what kind of person will do this and how we can stop them before it happens. The problem is we can't. No one truly knows what goes on inside each of us. Most people are very good at covering up there feelings until thay can't stand it anymore. The very minute each of us leaves home we are putting ourselves out in a place where someone can kill us. That scares us to know how vulnerable we are to this. Cho did not experience anything different than most all other shy people do. His perception of it however made all the difference.

There are so much more to the issue. Some people cannot handle being picked on, and you do raise many points. There should have been people that picked up on his anger/depression and see that he was being bullied. Who knows though? Bullies should be punished as well especially at a university level. That stuff is NOT acceptable at all. Have a nice day. Pablo

Excellent discussion. I agree with you. We need to focus more on bullying. I think that the school system shoud put more effort into dealing with bullying. My child's school and an after school "seminar" on bullying. I could not attend because I was at a meeting, but I thought it was a good idea. Parents and children were invited to attend. I'm not sure what the turn out was, but I think that it would be even more useful if they did it during school so that all the students would participate. I also think parents should make it a point to teach their children to be more sensitive to the feelings of others. Of course it's not right to go ballistic and start shooting people. That's just plain wrong. But the reality is there are a lot of lost and lonely souls in this world and a lot of people who don't get that one kind person in their life to reach out to them and turn them in the right direction. Sometimes it only takes one person to help another person out. We need to teach our kids to be kind to one another and we need to make them aware,that you never know what one thing will be what pushes someone over the edge. Some people just don't have the same resources or privileges that others do and people should just be kinder to one another. Thanks for the great discussion topic.

i am turning the round of the table to the killer's mom, i think and i do believe that our parents is the most responsible in bringing, feeding and teaching the right attitude to there children, maybe he has the attitude problem no one in this world with a normal mind will that kind of killings.