By Andrew L. Jaffee

So the “Va. Tech shooter was picked on in school.” Well, Regan Wilder went to middle school, high school, and Virginia Tech with Cho, and reminds us that going through adolescence, just like the rest of us did, isn’t rationalization for mass murder. Wilder:

…said she was sure Cho probably was picked on in middle school, but so was everyone else. …

It is not that we should permit bullying… On the other hand, life’s a bitch, as the Buddha and many other sages have taught us. In fact, several teachers tried to reach out to Cho:

Wilder recalled high school teachers trying to get him to participate, but “he would only shrug his shoulders or he’d give like two-word responses, and I think it just got to the point where teachers just gave up because they realized he wasn’t going to come out of the shell he was in, so they just kind of passed him over for the most part as time went on.”

Full Virginia Tech/Cho Seung-Hui Coverage:

• Thinking too much about Ismail Ax
• Virginia Tech: Mendacity!
• Lessons from Virginia Tech: We Had Better Learn Them
• Ideas for Virginia Tech killer Cho Seung-Hui
• The true measure of a man
• When PR supersedes safety
• Hollywood hasn’t raised concerns?

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Related: Society, Virginia Tech Shooting

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