Prof thought of shooter
April 18, 2007 12:35 am
BY EDIE GROSS
Before police ever named the Virginia Tech gunman, Nikki Giovanni knew
who it was.
The award-winning poet and long-time Virginia Tech professor had removed
a student from her class two years ago because he threatened others. As
the tragedy unfolded Monday, she thought of him.
"When I heard about this, I thought I knew the shooter," Giovanni said
yesterday. "It wasn't that he was crazy. It's that he was mean."
Police identified Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old English senior from
Northern Virginia, as the man who shot and killed 32 people at the
university Monday before taking his own life.
Cho was a student in Giovanni's advanced poetry class at the same time
as Colonial Forge High School graduate Tara Marciniak, who recalled that
he often hid his face.
"He came to class every day with dark glasses on and a baseball cap
pulled over his head," said Marciniak, a senior. "[Giovanni] asked him
to take them off numerous times, but he never did."
The students would often sit in a large circle and exchange ideas,
Marciniak said. One day, Cho snapped photos of all the students in the
circle.
During the next class, he read a poem that many found disturbing.
"He called everyone a 'barbarian' and said they're all going to go to
hell," she said. "I stopped going to class after that. I e-mailed
[Giovanni] and said, 'I'm not real comfortable with this kid.'"
After more students stopped coming, Giovanni said she asked
then-department head Lucinda H. Roy to remove Cho from her class.
"I said, 'He needs to get out of my classroom.' He was a scary fellow."
Giovanni said that Roy, who could not be reached, agreed to teach him
one-on-one.
Giovanni said she never felt threatened by Cho but understood why his
behavior bothered students.
"I'm an old woman. He didn't frighten me. But I did understand the
students' feelings," she said. "It was all just extremely creepy."
Edie Gross: 540/374-5428
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Copyright 2007 The Free Lance-Star
Publishing Company.
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