Once more into the breech

[barbarienne]

Reposting a reply I wrote over at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. Topic: the ongoing talk of how the VA Tech shooter wrote creepy, violent stuff in his English classes.

This is a topic near and dear to my heart. I’ve blogged about it twice before, here and hereAs a writer, the notion frankly scares me. A writer’s goddamn job is to go into the

Comments

[angledge]

I'm confused. What concerns you - the idea that people are horrified by what he wrote? Or that people are saying that he should've received more scrutiny from mental health professionals/campus authorities/the police because he wrote violent plays?

I think his writings were definitely a sign of trouble, especially when combined with other behaviors. He WAS the quiet kid in the back who never talks to anyone. Lucinda Roy, the professor who's been quoted all over the place, has surely read a lot of violent writing. And even with her previous exposure & her knowledge that yes, teens & twentysomethings often write stuff like this, she thought his stuff stood out as particularly disturbing. I don't think she's advocating rounding up all authors who write disturbing stuff - but she is saying that once in a while (once in a career?), a teacher may see something that should set off alarm bells.

[barbarienne]

I'm confused. What concerns you - the idea that people are horrified by what he wrote? Or that people are saying that he should've received more scrutiny from mental health professionals/campus authorities/the police because he wrote violent plays?

-->The second one. The news, in particular, is covering it very simplistically. "He wrote about violence, therefore he should have been watched" and "The fact that he wrote about violent things creeped out his profs and fellow students--they knew there was something wrong with him."

No. As a writer, I categorically reject this simplistic view.

What bothered the profs and the other students was the whole package: Cho was, in a word, weird in a particularly creepy, scary way. People can smell an unhinged predator in their midst. His creepy writing might have been part of the package, but if he had never written a word, I'm pretty sure he would have been creepy anyhow. I would like to hear some comments from profs and students who weren't in English class with him. I saw an interview with

[angledge]

So it's the way it's being covered by the media that bothers you, not the comment by the professor? If that's the case, I'd have to agree with you.

But I also think that teachers should be supported if they feel like a student's writings indicate trouble. It's a balancing act.

[barbarienne]

Yes, the media. They are sensationalizing something that shouldn't be, or at least not in the way they are doing it.

But I also think that teachers should be supported if they feel like a student's writings indicate trouble. It's a balancing act.

Granted. The teacher, being in direct contact with the student, is in a position to have more data than just the words on the page.

I would hope the teacher would try to talk to the student first and suss out the situation, rather than just go run off to the guidance counselor and say "I've got another one." My greatest concern is on the high school level, where more people seem inclined to freak, and where the qualifications for teachers aren't as high (and where there are just plain a broader spectrum of them, in raw numbers).

I don't like witch-hunts.

kswails

[angledge]

I'm on the same page as you here, E. This kid has a lot of angst and bottled-up crap that came out in his writing. And he was young, so of course the writing itself isn't all that great. The "disturbing" bits of his writing by itself isn't a tip-off that he had psychological problems. A piece of the puzzle? Sure. But the generalization that "creepy writing=creepy individual" can not be made.