Painful memories resurfaced formany De Anza College students lastMonday as they awoke to the news ofa killing spree at Virginia PolytechnicInstitute perpetrated by a 23-year oldEnglish major, Cho Seung Hui.
The tragedy evoked De Anza’sown close encounter with schoolviolence six years ago, whenstudent Al DeGuzman was narrowlyprevented from carrying out a similarattack by the vigilance of a drugstore employee, who alerted policeafter developing suspicious photosof DeGuzman posing with weapons.
Reactions from De Anza studentsranged from sadness and anger todisbelief that Cho had succeeded inkilling 33 people, including himself,across the Virginia Tech campus inlittle less than three hours.
“I was horrified and angry whenI first heard the news,” said studentElena Litvinlva. “These things havealmost become so common thatpeople think nothing of them.”
Others expressed shock at thescale of the massacre, which is nowconfirmed as the deadliest incidentof gun violence in U.S. history.
“Honestly, I was amazed thathe was able to kill so many people,because often in these shootings thereare only a handful of casualties. I wasamazed and scared,” said sophomoreOhr Shottan.
The massacre was discussed inclassrooms throughout last week,as students and faculty alike triedto understand what drove Cho tocommit his act of violence.
“In most cases like these, thereis a loose set of characteristicscommonly present in the psycheof the killer. They are sociallydisaffected, disdainful, narcissistic,and sometimes paranoid. Theydehumanize their victims before theykill them, using their own pain as arationale,” said psychology instructorCharles Ramskov.
“These massacresare often their last attempt at doingsomething they feel is significantwith their lives before they endthem.”
In Cho’s suicide note, videos andmanifesto that he mailed to NBCduring a short interval between thetwo main incidents of shooting, herailed against “rich kids” at VirginiaTech and “student debauchery,”prompting many to wonder if thesocial and academic pressuresof college life contributed to hishomicidal outburst.
“There are definitely pressures,but this behavior is extreme. He wasobviously unstable to begin with,”said student Christina Maine.
Still others questioned thecommon linkage of media violenceto events such as these.
“No one can say that there is adirect causal connection betweenthe two, but there is an element herewhich brings up our culture’s notionof fame, and media models of howwe should act. The pictures Cho tookof himself posing with his guns arealmost iconic, like an imitation of amovie,” said sociology departmentchair Jennifer Myhre.
A number of students at De Anzaand at other colleges expressed anunforgiving sentiment, captured in astatement by a Virginia Tech studentthat appeared in last Thursday’s SanJose Mercury News: “I personallydon’t care what he has to say. Thereis no possible explanation.”
