Paper by Cho Exhibits Disturbing Parallels to Shootings, Sources Say

Cho wrote the paper for the "Intro to Short Fiction" class that he took in spring 2006, taught by Bob Hicok, an associate professor of English. The gunman described in Cho's paper was in a high school. Cho, according to acquaintances and law enforcement sources, had expressed a fascination with the Columbine High School shootings while he was in middle school.

Hicok, a poet who has published four books, declined to comment. Virginia Tech officials also would not comment on the paper.

"We are in a difficult position," said Larry Hincker, associate vice president for university relations. "We don't believe it's appropriate to comment about any aspect of the review prior to the release of the governor's panel report. We are anxiously awaiting those findings and recommendations and will defer comment until Thursday."

The paper about the school massacre is the latest of Cho's disturbing and violent college writings to surface. In the days after the shootings, several members of the English department faculty said that Cho's class papers and plays had bothered them but that they had felt constrained in taking any action. The role of professors and their intervention in such cases is one of the areas likely explored by the Kaine panel. Many of the writings included angry teenage characters and killings.

But even as the other writings became public on the Internet and news reports, the school shootings paper written for Hicok never came to light. The sources said Hicok gave that paper and others to law enforcement authorities April 18.

Sources said Cho's writings so alarmed Hicok that, in spring 2006, he went to the English department's chairwoman, Lucinda Roy, and they discussed whether he should be removed from the class. They decided it would be best to keep him in the class, the sources said.

Cho also alarmed the noted Virginia Tech poet Nikki Giovanni in a creative writing class in fall 2005. Giovanni said Cho took pictures of fellow students during class and wrote about death. The day after the shootings, she said in an interview that "kids write about murder and suicide all the time. But there was something that made all of us pay attention closely. None of us were comfortable with that."

In Giovanni's class, the students, including Cho, recited poems they had written. Days later, only seven of 70 or so students showed up for class. She asked why the others didn't come and was told that they were afraid of Cho.

Giovanni then approached Cho and told him that he needed to change the type of poems he was writing or drop her class. Cho declined to leave and told her, "You can't make me."

Giovanni said she appealed to Roy. Roy then taught Cho one-on-one. She said she also urged Cho to seek counseling and told him that she would walk him to the counseling center. Cho said he would think about it.

After the shootings, investigators found a manifesto that Cho had written and left in his dorm room. He also sent a letter to the English department. The manifesto, along with some of his other writings, indicated to investigators that Cho believed people had no respect for him or others he perceived were like him and that he planned to do something about it.

In one writing, he warned: "Kill yourselves or you will never know how the dorky kid that [you] publicly humiliated and spat on will come behind you and slash your throats. . . . Kill yourselves or you will never know the hour the little kid will come with hundreds of ammunition on his back to shoot you down."

In a videotape he sent to NBC News, Cho delivered a venomous tirade about rich "brats" and their "hedonistic needs."

Those angry feelings were reflected in his school paper, the sources said.

Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.