Daniel Golden, writing in the Wall Street Journal, offers the theory that inadequate special education services failed to remediate the emotional problems of Virginia Tech shooter Cho Seung-hui, and thus were partially to blame for the murder of 32 students and faculty members there. The story is yet another in a series of articles in that newspaper that find fault with the way special education services are being delivered.

Details of Mr. Cho’s experience in special education, which are only now coming to light, suggest that high schools may be paying too much attention to the academic advancement of bright but troubled stdents and not enough to their emotional disorders…

When the students move on to college, schools are rarely warned, students get help with special needs only if they seek it, and psychological problems can flare up, sometimes with devastating consequences …

In an earlier era, students with emotional disorders often dropped out of school or were educated in separate facilities. Today, they typically take mainstream classes — with accommodations as needed — and many go on to college.

From the Wall Street Journal. Registration required.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 20th, 2007 at 11:39 am and is filed under emotional disabilities, special education, violence. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.