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AOL News has obtained two plays a classmate says were written by Cho Seung-Hui. Ian MacFarlane, the former classmate and current AOL employee, provided us with the plays. A note from Mr. MacFarlane and links to the works appear below.What happened yesterday:
When I first heard about the multiple shootings at Virginia Tech yesterday, my first thought was about my friends, and my second thought was "I bet it was Seung Cho."
Cho was in my playwriting class last fall, and nobody seemed to think much of him at first. He would sit by himself whenever possible, and didn't like talking to anyone. I don't think I've ever actually heard his voice before. He was just so quiet and kept to himself. Looking back, he fit the exact stereotype of what one would typically think of as a "school shooter" – a loner, obsessed with violence, and serious personal problems. Some of us in class tried to talk to him to be nice and get him out of his shell, but he refused talking to anyone. It was like he didn't want to be friends with anybody. One friend of mine tried to offer him some Halloween candy that she still had, but he slowly shook his head, refusing it. He just came to class every day and submitted his work on time, as I understand it.
A major part of the playwriting class was peer reviews. We would write one-act plays and submit them to an online repository called Blackboard for everyone in the class to read and comment about in class the next day. Typically, the students give their opinions about the plays and suggest ways to make it better, the professor gives his insights, then asks the author to comment about the play in class.
When we read Cho's plays, it was like something out of a nightmare. The plays had really twisted, macabre violence that used weapons I wouldn't have even thought of. Before Cho got to class that day, we students were talking to each other with serious worry about whether he could be a school shooter. I was even thinking of scenarios of what I would do in case he did come in with a gun, I was that freaked out about him. When the students gave reviews of his play in class, we were very careful with our words in case he decided to snap. Even the professor didn't pressure him to give closing comments.
After hearing about the mass shootings, I sent one of my friends a Facebook message asking him if he knew anything about Seung Cho and if he could have been involved. He replied: "dude that's EXACTLY what I was thinking! No, I haven't heard anything, but seriously, that was the first thing I thought when I heard he was Asian."
While I "knew" Cho, I always wished there was something I could do for him, but I couldn't think of anything. As far as notifying authorities, there isn't (to my knowledge) any system set up that lets people say "Hey! This guy has some issues! Maybe you should look into this guy!" If there were, I definitely would have tried to get the kid some help. I think that could have had a good chance of averting yesterday's tragedy more than anything.
While I was hesitant at first to release these plays (because I didn't know if there are laws against it), I had to put myself in the shoes of the average person researching this situation. I'd want to know everything I could about the killer to figure out what could drive a person to do something like this and hopefully prevent it in the future. Also, I hope this might help people start caring about others more no matter how weird they might seem, because if this was some kind of cry for attention, then he should have gotten it a long time ago.
As far as the victims go, as I was heading to bed last night, I heard that my good friend Stack (Ryan Clark) was one of the first confirmed dead. I didn't want to believe that I'd never get to talk to him again, and all I could think about was how much I could tell him how much his friendship meant to me. During my junior year, Ryan, another friend and I used to get breakfast on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Shultz Dining Hall, one of the cafeterias on campus, and it was always the highlight of my day. He could talk forever it seemed and always made us laugh. He was a good friend, not just to me, but to a lot of people, and I'll miss him a lot.
Click on the links below the read the plays. WARNING: the plays contain profanity and scenes with disturbing content.
- Read Play #1: 'Richard McBeef'
- Read Play #2: 'Mr. Brownstone'
Reader Comments ( Page 4 of 689)
46. After reading this I am suprised that someone didn't discuss his issues with staff...maybe they did. It reads like a cry for help...a poorly written one. Tragic.
n at 2:55PM on Apr 17th 2007
47. It's sounds like he has internalized problems with society and expressed his feelings about them through this play.
Paul at 2:55PM on Apr 17th 2007
48. okay and you decide now to say he could be a shooter, you never told anyone anything, never reported anything? so you did nothing, wow how intresting
chelsie at 2:55PM on Apr 17th 2007
49. You can't 'turn someone in' because they create a piece of art that you think may say something about them. It's a work of imagination (or it's supposed to be). Perhaps he was just getting inside the mind of a young sociopath. Turns out he had issues obviously, but you know how many thousands of plays, stories and poems are submitted to creative writing classes that are way more disturbing than that? You can't just assume that means someone is demented.
Pedro at 2:55PM on Apr 17th 2007
50. Too much MSG in Cho's shop suey..........gotta watch that.
duane at 2:55PM on Apr 17th 2007
51. I couldn't go past page 4 of this "play", it is so disturbing. The student who turned this in has my deepest sympathy for the grief he is feeling and the obvious frustration he expresses over the inability to have been able to act on his intuitive fears about Sueng Cho.
Rhea at 2:56PM on Apr 17th 2007
52. Stacy, I agree with you - this guy sounds like he is not only wacko but not very smart. I don't understand why people are attacking you. Your are right - this paper certainly does not sound like something that somebody in college should be writing! Don't let those jerks that are jumping on you for stating the facts get to you! Sounds like they need to see a counselor themselves!
Susan at 2:56PM on Apr 17th 2007
53. To understand what caused a young man to eventually want to take the lives of people who were his peers, would require an indepth study of his youth at home and school. What happens to children during youth creates what they later become. Treatment of children by adults causes the later acceptance of them by peers. Without the feeling of belongingness, the world of a child can be terrible. These reoccurring tragedies in schools are a symptom of a greater problem. Structuring a child's rearing through dignified approaches and dialogue create critical thinkers. The hard approaches such as what is practiced in homes and through school codes of conduct do not allow for thoughtful growth. The shootings should bring pause to our lives to reevaluate our approaches with each other and children. I hope that we will begin to learn from this isolated change of behavior occurring in our youth that is encroaching on our lives. Circumstances as grave as this should cause everyone who affects the lives of youth to change their behaviors in handling the growth and development opportunities that arise. The self image and fears that each of us has resulted from those who were our models.
Janna Schwimmer at 2:56PM on Apr 17th 2007
54. Guess I'm naive, but this piece of porn should've elicited some kind of action when he turned it in. Perhaps, in our depraved society, this was not considered out of the 'norm'.
Linda at 2:56PM on Apr 17th 2007
55. I just can't believe someone from that college was not smart enough to see that this young man was crying out for help. It's very obvious he was very disturbed.
Judy at 2:56PM on Apr 17th 2007
56. Hey Scott - YOU are a twit and a moron, not Stacy! You like that? And YOU grow up, roxie, you idiot! Of course we can judge the psycho's writing, you dumbazzes. Hey Madeline, that's right, defend the psycho, you ignoramus.
Sean at 2:56PM on Apr 17th 2007
57. I cannot get over how angry and disturbed this boy is. What could have filled him with such hate to write like this, to think he has a right to cause pain to the hundreds of people who will be affected by this. It is sad. And he does it here of all places. Why come to our country and kill innocent people? I don't get it!
Paul at 2:57PM on Apr 17th 2007
58. Stacy, that is your response? After reading all that, you criticze his grammar. You're a real genius. Sounds to me that he didn't like his father very much, or step-father and no longer trusted anyone but himself, which could exlpain why he never talked to anyone. Clearly he was troubled, and who knows what made him snap.
Jordan at 2:57PM on Apr 17th 2007
59. Wow, this is so disturbing! I don't understand why nothing was done after he had turned this in!
Kristy at 2:57PM on Apr 17th 2007
60. so what happened to the mother in the story... it looks incomplete.
bigshot at 2:57PM on Apr 17th 2007