Families say files contradict Va. Tech
Long-missing mental-health records of Virginia Tech killer Seung-Hui Cho challenge the university’s claim that it handled him appropriately at its counseling center, according to families for two students killed by Cho.
“The records are remarkable for what they don’t contain,“ the families’ Reston-based lawyer, Robert T. Hall, said yesterday.
Tech released two sets of medical records Wednesday—one from the university’s Cook Counseling Center, the other discovered last month in the home of the center’s former director.
Cho shot and killed 32 students and professors on April 16, 2007, before killing himself.
About seven months before that, the counseling center advised Associate Dean Mary Ann Lewis that staff members could find no mental-health history on Cho, according to legal papers filed in Blacksburg by the families yesterday. Lewis asked the counseling center about Cho’s history in September 2006, after a professor asked Lewis for help in dealing with the troubled student.
The legal papers formally ask Robert C. Miller, the former director of the counseling center, to admit:
- That Tech’s director of residence life, Gerald Kowalski, told Miller that a judge found Cho to be an imminent danger to himself or others on Dec. 14, 2005, and that Cho had kept knives in his dorm room and had a history of erratic behavior.
- That a counselor spent only 30 minutes with Cho after the judge’s finding, which included a court order that Cho get mental-health care. That order and her session with Cho were on Dec. 14, 2005.
- That the counselor did not try to make any diagnosis of Cho or arrange for any follow-up care.
- That counseling center staff rated Cho as “troubled” and needing follow-up within two weeks after he called the center on Nov. 30, 2005, to say he was depressed and having panic attacks.
- That Miller was aware of an incident earlier in 2005 that led Tech professor Nikki Giovanni to demand he be removed from her class.
Hall said the families of Erin Peterson and Julia Pryde, two of Cho’s victims, believe those were among the facts that Miller should have known. The families are claiming that Miller, along with several other university officials and the university itself, were negligent in monitoring and treating Cho.
Hall said the families are disputing an assertion by Tech that the counseling center acted appropriately and offered to provide treatment to him.
Miller’s lawyer, Edward J. McNelis III, said Miller has sworn under oath that he inadvertently removed the Cho file and added that the families’ request for admissions from Miller are not facts but only contentions about what Miller knew. He said Miller is confident that the allegations against him by the families will be proven false in court.
“The recovered records speak for themselves. Virginia Tech is pleased that the records were found, made public, and that they indicate the professionals acted appropriately under the circumstances facing them more than a year before the tragedy,“ spokesman Mark Owczarski said.
The long-missing records show the counselor who met Cho, after the judge found he was mentally ill and ordered him to get treatment, drew an X through a key form’s questions about whether he was depressed, suffering panic attacks, behaving dangerously or hearing voices. She noted: “Did not assess—student has had 2 previous triages in past 2 wks—last two days ago.“
The records show the counselor was aware Cho had been hospitalized, but that he told her that a comment he made about suicide was a joke.
Although Cho had been ordered to get treatment, the forms show the counselor did not schedule a follow-up appointment “because he doesn’t know [his] schedule.“
Contact David Ress at (804) 649-6051 or dress @timesdispatch.com.
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Reader Reactions
Wilbur- I’m with you. There is not law or anything that prevents a clinician from asking/saying anything to a patient when it pertains to the reason they are receiving services or any other issue related to assessment/ treatment. This is especially true with suicidal ideation. I work with teens who are have thoughts of or have attempted suicide. Anything is fair game to ask.
I sure hope that counselor didn’t just say nothing. I’m sure he/she didn’t. No one knows exactly what was said but the professional and Cho. I don’t think any of us should speculate and make assumptions about what happened or didn’t happen during any of those contacts. My original comment was directed at VAGentleman’s assumptions in his comment (not very gentlemanly I might add).
Ric4me, My brother-in law is a practicing psychologist for a CSB here in Virginia. I will ask him if there’s a “law” against therapists ‘grilling’ or prodding with questions, in regards to suicidal remarks made by patient. I don’t believe there is. Especially when the person is under a court order or a TDO.
If this counselor said “Oh, just a joke. Alright. Strange, but ok whatever you say.“ Then yeah this counselor did a p-poor job.
Were you there? How do you know the counselor DIDN’T tell him it wasn’t a smart thing to joke about?
I think you probably need to educate yourself on mental health laws, especially as they stood in 2007. Just like in the physical medical field… a doctor can’t treat you without your permission(provided you’re conscious and breathing of course) or without going to exhaustive links to prove you aren’t capable of making your own decisions.
Regardless, all of this isn’t going to change the outcomes of the event. If it makes the families of those two individuals feel better because they can blame someone other than the killer, find, personally I think that’s pathetic, but whatever.
More effort should be focused on improving the quality of mental health care services, access to services, and better identification of ADULT students (over 18, you have your own rights remember) who might be in crisis. All the time and money spent on this blame game is time and money that could be better spent on the solution to the problem.
So the counselor, when told by Cho “that he told her that a comment he made about suicide was a joke” did not challenge this as an inappropriate way to make friends or to act, and thus remand him for further treatment, apparently accepted this self-report as evidence of Cho’s stability?
Someone needs to go back for some additional training!
So the counselor, when told by Cho “that he told her that a comment he made about suicide was a joke” did not challenge this as an inappropriate way to make friends or to act, and thus remand him for further treatment, apparently accepted this self-report as evidence of Cho’s “stability?“
Someone needs to go back for some additional training!
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