My heart goes out to all the victims and survivors of this tragedy, and to their friends and families. And for Cho's soul and his family with my condolences to all. It's an overwhelmingly sad situation, that won't soon be forgotten by those directly affected.

Cho appears to have been very troubled, and I wish that things could have gone in a different direction for him. My hope now is that by this tragedy that better interventions methods can be put in place for all mentally ill adults and youth. As the general population isn't aware of how difficult in can be to get help for friends and family with mental illness. The bottom line is that a person with mental illness has to pose a danger to self or others before he/she can get help, and unfortunately that can be too late, after either suicide, homicide or other crimes committed. It's so sad because people with severe mental illness suffer greatly by delusional thought patterns that dominate their minds. Treatment is not always effective as many refuse to take their medications and while others are prescribed experimental medication on a trial basis that can last several months on the wait and see method to tell if it works......... Because of patient-doctor confidentiality almost always family and friends are not included in the treatment plan, are not questioned about patient condition or even warned by doctors the signs and symptoms of the acute stages of the particular diagnosis.

Another point worth mentioning is that many severely mentally ill people have survived extreme childhood abuse, and their way of coping with that is to mentally exit the reality of the world. My best friend Cathy hung herself at the age of 22 that resulted in her death in 1980, diagnosed bi-polar, she refused to take her meds, and was a survivor of incest by an older brother. And many other friends I know who struggle with severe mental illness also have very similar backgrounds of child sexual abuse by family or friends of the family. Rob a child of his/her books and they'll cry but rob a child of his/her self of self and the individual develops an emptiness on the inside that only a victim can describe.
It's my belief that on a physiological level many of our current school systems are unsafe, for example elementary schools teach the ABC's but not how to deal with school bullies on or off campus. Children who are of a different race, disability or are overweight are often at risk of teasing and taunting by other students, this in it's self I feel is very disturbing, because how can any child focus on class work while having to deal with the constant rejection and humiliation by some other students. A child can be loved at home, but if the child is hated in a school environment his/her self perception changes from a positive self worth into a negative self hate identity, and then this becomes the foundation of hate towards others/hate towards self. And that I feel is the root causes of suicides and homicides in our youth and adult populations alike. In order to solve problems we need to intensely examine it's causes and effects, and hopefully then find effective solutions.