Profs Worried By Shooter's Morbid Writing

Cho Seung-Hui frightened students and teachers in Virginia Tech’s English department with morbid writing. Poet Nikki Giovanni had to extract Cho from her creative writing course when her students began skipping class out of fear of him. Cho spoke in whispers, hid behind sunglasses, and took surreptitious pictures of fellow students, Giovanni told the Washington Post.

“Kids write about murder and suicide all the time,” she said. But in Cho’s poetry “there was something that made all of us pay attention closely.” English professor Lucinda Roy, who later taught Cho one-on-one, called him “the loneliest person I have ever met.” She urged him to get counseling, and warned school officials. (More Seung-Hui Cho stories.)