Is the nightmare at Virginia Tech over? Last week, Korean Americans in the southern U.S. state were afraid it was all starting again when a senior student of Korean descent at the college was found dead in the parking lot of a shopping center nearby, a gunshot wound to his head. It revived the fresh memory of the crazed Korean student who killed 32 people on April 16 before turning the gun on himself. Was this a revenge killing? However, local police announced that the student in the parking lot was a presumed suicide who had suffered from depression.
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On Dec. 5, Eric Welch, a student at Virginia Tech, pays homage to Daniel Perez, one of the victims he went to high school with, in front of a memorial monument on campus. It has been eight months since a crazed shooter killed 32 innocent people.
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¡ß The scene of the crime
When the Chosun Ilbo visited early this month, sleet covered the campus of Virginia Tech. Thirty-two stones are placed a meter apart between them in a 10-m diameter semicircle at an outdoor memorial in memory of the victims, some 50 m from the Norris Hall engineering building, where the massacre occurred. Nobody stopped the reporter from entering the building, and only a sign saying "Caution, Security" hung on the wall of the first floor. The four lecture rooms on the second floor where victims were killed were locked tightly. Though it was midday, there was no trace of people in the 30 m-long hallway.
Here, April 16 was still fresh. Most of the students I met avoided answering questions about the shooting eight months earlier, as if they didn't want to relive the tragedy. One student I met at Norris Hall left hastily, only saying, "No comment."
¡ß Healing the wounds
Virginia Tech is trying to overcome the greatest tragedy since it was founded in 1872 by proactively dealing with rather than concealing it. The school has opened a memorial page on its website (www.vt.edu) entitled "We Remember" to explain how the shooting occurred and what measures have been taken. Since the shooting, the school has treated students' psychological trauma by drastically increasing the number of psychological counselors. Macy Barnes, a freshman who entered the school in September, said it is reiterating the importance of counseling at every opportunity -- at the freshman orientation program or in class.
Eric Welch, whom the reporter met at the memorial, said, "It was a painful tragedy for all of us,¡± adding the college is taking various measures to prevent a recurrence. But it will take a lot of time for Virginia Tech to overcome the tragedy. I met Paul Platz, who was taking pictures of winter scenery on campus. "It was like a kind of 9/11 for Virginia Tech,¡± he said. ¡°How can things be the same afterwards?"
¡ß Korean-American silence
Korean Americans in the Washington, D.C. area were shocked when the Apr. 16 shooting occurred. They have tried to deal with the tragedy by getting together at Korean churches in their community, where they have held memorial services for the victims and raised funds for their families. The Korean churches in Northern Virginia collected $300,000, which they delivered to Virginia Tech. But on the whole, Korean Americans refrain from mentioning the shooting if they can. A Korean-American graduate of Virginia Tech said, "I was embarrassed because a Korean was the perpetrator. It seems nobody wants to talk about this."
Yoo Hyun-seung, who has been elected next president of the Korean students council at Virginia Tech, said, "Since the shooting, none of the Korean students have experienced discrimination just because they are Korean." The parents of Seung-hui Cho, the perpetrator, still live in Virginia, out of touch with other people. An official at the Korean Embassy in Washington, said, "We don't attempt to keep in contact with them out of respect for their wish to keep to themselves."
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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