About Seung-Hui Cho

January 18, 1984 – April 16, 2007) was a student at Virginia Tech who committed the mass murder of 32 people^[3] and wounded 25 others^[4] in the shooting rampage known as the Virginia Tech massacre.^[5] Cho committed suicide after law enforcement officers breached the doors of the building where he had killed and wounded his victims.^[6]

Cho was a South Korean national who had permanent resident status in the United States, where he arrived at a young age with his family. He was diagnosed with a severe form of an anxiety disorder known as selective mutism in middle school, as well as depression.That is when he started receiving treatment and he continued receiving therapy and special education support until his junior year of high school. During Cho's last two years at Virginia Tech, several incidences of his aberrant behavior, as well as plays and other writings submitted by him containing references to violence and profanity, caused concerns among teachers and classmates.

In the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shootings, Timothy Kaine, governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, convened a panel consisting of various officials and experts to investigate and examine the response and handling of issues related to the Virginia Tech shootings. The panel released its final report in August 2007, devoting more than 30 pages to detailing Cho's troubled history. In the report, the panel criticized numerous failures — by school administrators, educators and mental health professionals who came into contact with Cho during his college years and who failed to notice his deteriorating condition and help him. The panel also criticized misinterpretations of privacy laws and gaps in Virginia's mental health system and gun laws. In addition, the panel faulted Virginia Tech administrators in particular for failing to take immediate action after the first shootings.

Review of Cho's medical records

During the investigation, the matter of Cho's court-ordered mental health treatment was also examined to determine its outcome. Virginia investigators learned after a review of Cho's medical records that Cho never complied with the order for the mandated mental health treatment as an outpatient. The investigators also found that neither the court nor New River Valley Community Services Board exercised oversight of Cho's case to determine his compliance with the order for outpatient treatment. In response to questions about Cho's case, New River Valley Community Services Board maintained that its facility was never named in the court order as the provider for Cho's mental health treatment, and its responsibility ended once Cho was discharged from its care after the court order. In addition, Christopher Flynn, director of the Cook Counseling Center at Virginia Tech, mentioned that the court did not notify his office to report that Cho was required to seek outpatient mental health treatment. Flynn added that, "When a court gives a mandatory order that someone get outpatient treatment, that order is to the individual, not an agency ... The one responsible for ensuring that the mentally ill person receives help in these sort of cases ... is the mentally ill person."

As a result, Cho escaped compliance with the court order for mandatory mental health treatment as an outpatient, even though Virginia law required community services boards to "recommend a specific course of treatment and programs" for mental health patients and "monitor the person's compliance." As for the court, Virgina law also mandated that, if a person fails to comply with a court order to seek mental health treatment as an outpatient, that person can be brought back before the court "and if found still in crisis, can be committed to a psychiatric institution for up to 180 days." Cho was never summoned to court to explain why he had not complied with the December 14, 2005 order for mandatory mental health treatment as an outpatient.

The investigation panel had sought Cho's medical records for several weeks, but due to privacy laws, Virginia Tech was prohibited from releasing them without permission from Cho's family, even after Cho's death. The panel had considered using subpoenas to obtain his records. On June 12, 2007, Cho's family released his medical records to the panel, although the panel said that the records were not enough. The panel obtained additional information by court order. Like the Columbine massacres, and Jokela school massacres, the perpetrators of the Virginia Tech masascre, Cho Seung-Hui, was also prescribed an anti-depressant (prozac) prior to his suicidal rampage, a substance suspected by Peter Breggin and David Healy of leading to suicidal behaviors.