Tragedy in Virginia raises questions about school safety everywhere

All of the 'classic signs' were evident by the behaviour of madman killer Cho Seung-Hui that he was a ticking time bomb – and indeed posed a serious threat not only to himself, but also to those around him.

In 2005, under court order, the killer was diagnosed in a private psychiatric institution and deemed Seung-Hui, “presents am imminent danger to himself as a result of mental illness,” as indicated in a survey, with the description checked in a box on a piece of paper. Virginia Special Justice, Paul M. Barnett officiated the case and decreed that Seung-Hui should be treated on an outpatient basis. He checked the box to concur the patient posed a threat to himself, but recent media investigations have found that Barnett did not check the box next to the personal threat, to include the fact there may be reason to assume Seung-Hui was also a danger to others.

The compass of blame will swivel and point in many directions, eventually failing to point to the truth of the matter. It was very evident the worst mass murder at a school in American history, may have been averted if a simple investigation by authorities had taken place. After the Dawson College murder in Quebec last year, an amazing amount of footage and information about the killer emerged after his actions of brutality. Something is very wrong with this picture.

The Virginia Tech gunman mailed a video of himself, after he had already killed two students, to NBC. The news station contacted the FBI yet two hours passed before the second shooting of 30 more innocent lives occurred. Where was the killer for those 120 minutes, moreover, where were the authorities who may have been able to stop the carnage from escalating?

Initial US media coverage centered on the emotional side and barely uttered any factual information about what happened. Immediately one station had a panel assembled to try and “understand” the situation. The host asked a psychiatrist how people move on after something like this to which the doctor replied the event had just happened, people have to deal with that first before “moving” anywhere. Every station was fixated with trying to glean as much hype from the pain and suffering side as possible. Forget what could have been done, focus on the killer, allowing him the sick fame he so obviously deserved, and why bother with hard facts.

If we think that for one second something so horrific could not happen in Canada, or in particular, Nova Scotia – we have to think of a school in rural Taber Alberta, and a MacDonald's in Cape Breton. The fundamental difference being in most Canadian cases, there was no indication on the part of the killers of what it was they were about to do. In Virginia, it seems as though there were so many warning signs, all of which were ignored, the madman got frustrated and finally acted out.

Nova Scotia teacher Jocelyn Coutre-Nowak was not only one of the victims, but so too were at least ten of her students she taught at the school. Coutre-Nowak's daughter troubled her to the point where she had to go to the site and attempt to find out what happened to her mother, as answers were not being given.