The WSJ at it again, saying we all knew Cho was crazy and we should
have taken action prior to his attack. Here are some quotes from a
recent Op-ed:

> One of the Safe School report's most relevant findings, for the
> purposes of stopping another Virginia Tech, is that the 37 school
> attacks weren't typically carried out by severely ill, unhinged
> psychotics like Cho Seung-Hui. This is not to say they were happy
> campers (the study interviewed 10 perpetrators in depth). Though
> few of them would get off by reason of insanity, they were all
> mentally very unhappy campers; and what is more, other people knew
> that. And in nearly every case, someone knew they were planning the
> attack: "In nearly two thirds of the incidents, more than one
> person had information about the attack before it occurred."
>
> Among the reasons widely adduced for not doing something about
> Cho's violent proclivities are HIPAA and FERPA, the confidentiality
> laws for health records and college students' records. Well,
> there's no FERPA for high schools. There is merely the weird
> cultural refusal to turn in bad actors to adult authority. In one
> school attack, so many students knew it was coming that 24 were
> waiting on a mezzanine to watch, one with a camera. The enemy is us.
>
> Prior to the studied assaults, some 93% of the attackers behaved in
> ways that caused concern to school officials, teachers, parents,
> the cops or other students. "In one case, the student's English
> teacher became concerned about several poems and essays that . . ."
> well, you know the rest.
>
> Psychological flameouts were indeed present in virtually all the
> attacks--depression (61%), prior suicidal attempts or thoughts
> (78%), a sense of loss, feelings of being persecuted or in fact
> bullied.
See:
http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/dhenninger/?id=110009988

I sent a response to this, but perhaps like my last response tis one
will not be published. Here was my response:

-------------
Daniel Henniger states that, "Prior to the studied assaults, some 93%
of the attackers behaved in ways that caused concern to school
officials, teachers, parents, the cops or other students."

Of course, after we all know what the attacker was planning, the
pieces of the puzzle fit together quite nicely. The question is how
well did the pieces fit together before we knew what the attacker was
planning. I'm sure as soon as something like this happens, there's a
sense of, "we knew it all along." But clearly that can be deceptive.
It's the confirmation bias working retroactively. Do we really want
to start accusing people of crimes before they happen?

Having said this, why was Cho not expelled from school for his
ostensibly bad behavior. You can be expelled from Virginia Tech for
carrying a concealed handgun, despite it being perfectly legal. But
one is not expelled for stalking girls, or taking pictures of them
from under a desk? Perhaps Cho should have been help more responsible
for his behavior from the very beginning. Was it because he had a
supposed "mental illness" that he was not?
-------------

Best,
Matt Dioguardi