State Report Criticizes Va. Tech Response

Aug 30, 05:00 AM

Current Headlines: By Donna Leinwand

The statewide panel charged with investigating the mass shooting at Virginia Tech sharply criticized the university for not quickly and clearly notifying students and staff after police responded to a double homicide in a campus dorm and for failing to respond when shooter Seung Hui Cho showed signs of mental illness his junior year.

Cho killed two students the West Ambler Johnston dorm early on April 16 before moving across campus to Norris Hall where he killed 30 people. The report says the panel and the police still don't know Cho's motive for the killings.

The report, posted on the Virginia state government's website late Wednesday, said, "The earlier and clearer the warning, the more chance an individual had of surviving." Virginia Tech waited almost two hours after the dorm killings to notify students and faculty, violating its own policies, the report said.

However, the report concluded that a lockdown of the campus after the dorm shootings was impractical and may not have stopped Cho from killing others. "From what we know of his mental state and commitment to action that day, it was likely that he would have acted out his fantasy somewhere on campus or outside it" that day, it said.

The report praised the coordinated police response to the shootings at the residence hall, but said the university police concluded prematurely that the dorm shooting was a domestic issue, which led them to look for the wrong person and report that the suspect had probably left campus.

The campus police department erred by not requesting a campuswide notification, the report said.

The panel also said the university did not intervene effectively even though people at the school knew of "numerous incidents" during Cho's junior year that were "warnings of mental instability."

Cho showed signs of mental health problems from childhood, the report found. He received help in middle and high school, including psychiatric treatment for selective mutism and depression, the report said.

Teachers observed suicidal and homicidal thoughts in Cho's writing after the school shooting at Columbine High in 1999 and referred him for psychiatric counseling, the panel said. Cho received counseling and medication for a short time, the report said.

When Cho arrived at Virginia Tech, the panel found, he did not receive the mental health services he needed in late 2005 and 2006. Records of Cho's treatment at Tech's Cook Counseling Center are missing.

In interviews with the panel, university staff, counselors, police and administrators said they did not share information about Cho's mental state because they were barred by federal privacy laws. The panel concluded that the university misinterpreted the laws. "The system failed for lack of resources, incorrect interpretation of privacy laws, and passivity," the report said. (c) Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.