<p>I only saw leaders for the CNN show about this tragic young man, but something to think about is that the very responsible sender of the warning e-mail was not a “friend” as you or I might first imagine. </p>
<p>In his depression, Kim spent time on “WOW” (World of Warfare?) and revealed his thoughts there in an open manner, all the while secluding himself from real-life contacts (was afraid he’d be mistaken as the Asian shooter from the previous year).
His sister told him he didn’t look anything like that guy, but he still skulked around under a baseball cap and finally stopped attending classes, which his father picked up by phone. </p>
<p>The RPI student who picked up on the typed warnings reached out to notify VT, and interviewed by TV as a very thoughtful communicator, indicated by his letter as well (readable as a sidebar in the OP’s link). If I recall right, he also did a followup phone call to VT when they didn’t reply to him, and was told they were “handling” it…</p>
<p>My thought is as adults (and university officials are adults) we’re missing the boat when we think that a tip from an online game’s side chat room is automatically not “as good” as a telephone call or a real-life friend standing in front of our desks. </p>
<p>The sharing those 2 kids did on WOW revealed plenty enough info for a university to investigate. I suppose sending the police over to his doorstep exonerates them, but my learning from this is that we need to respect where kids do reveal their thoughts to each other, and take even WOW seriously, if guns or suicide are discussed like they were. </p>
<p>I think the tip-off RPI student was dismissed because the kids shared on-line, and that’s not a contemporary understanding of kids’ communication patterns.</p>