Va. Tech Panel Lacks Full Picture on Cho

Decisions Were Made Without Treatment Plan

After two months of public hearings by the state panel investigating the Virginia Tech massacre, one thing has emerged most clearly: The state's system of dealing with the mentally ill is in almost desperate need of repair.

Even with expanded powers granted by the governor that gave the panel access to confidential medical, psychological and academic records, and even with additional records made available after Seung Hui Cho's parents waived their right to privacy, panel members said they still do not have a complete picture of how the system handled Cho. So much information was missing, incomplete or destroyed, they said.

Although there is no way to know whether proper treatment in 2005 would have prevented the April 16 attack that left 33 dead, including Cho, testimony before the panel has indicated that mental health officials who at first claimed no knowledge of Cho nor responsibility for him had been sent reports about him.

Even so, the panel learned that the mental health professional responsible for assessing Cho made decisions without all the facts, because psychological reports and a treatment plan had not been written. It's unclear if they ever were.

Aradhana A. "Bela" Sood, the panel member heading up the mental health inquiry, said in an interview that the system, with its vague laws and lack of funding, resources and staffing, was to blame for much of the breakdown in the Cho case. "You can't blame the people; they are not bad, they are not evil . . . they were part of the system," she said. "And with the system we have right now, we are very lucky that we don't have more things like this happening. It's a national tragedy."

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) created the panel after Cho's rampage on the Blacksburg campus. In addition to Cho's interaction with the state mental health system, the panel is looking into university security issues, gun laws and the police's and university's actions in response to shootings. The report also will examine how the university and state reacted after the shootings.

Much of the mental health testimony centered on what could have or should have happened in Cho's case after a special justice ordered him to receive outpatient treatment in 2005. But the key question, officials said, is why very little of that actually did happen. Sources who have seen Cho's medical records have said that Cho never received the ordered treatment. Testimony before the panel has referred only to Cho's vague "interaction" with Virginia Tech's Cook Counseling Center.

Mental health experts said that outpatient treatment orders in Virginia are in force for 180 days and are generally intensive. "True treatment is going to extend for a minimum of three months and generally last a year in order to bring about some sort of therapeutic resolution," said David Bice, a special justice in Lynchburg who presides over commitment hearings. The sources who have seen Cho's records said that did not happen in his case.

Also still unknown in the Cho case is whether any treatment plan, as required by law, was written for him, what agency should have been monitoring that treatment and why it didn't, according to the testimony.

State law says that local community services boards are required to oversee cases such as Cho's. In Blacksburg, that would fall on the New River Valley Community Services Board. But Les Saltzberg, the agency's director until resigning last month, said the board was not informed about Cho's commitment order. "The code does say that the [board] is supposed to do a treatment plan," Saltzberg said. "But there's no way we could have done one, because we were never contacted."

Kaine's panel is scheduled to meet again in closed session Tuesday to try to figure out what went wrong. "These are the confusing issues being looked at," Sood said.

Cho's strange behavior -- referring to himself as "?," talking about an imaginary twin brother and his violent writing -- had brought him to the attention of campus officials. But in December 2005, he entered the mental health system when a female student contacted the university to report that Cho was harassing her. Campus police visited Cho to warn him to stop. The next day, Cho indicated to a roommate that he might as well kill himself, and the roommate's father, fearing Cho was suicidal, contacted the police.