Virginia tech shooter received special education services in Fairfax County public schools
According to sources familiar with the history of Virginia tech shooter Seung Hui Cho, Fairfax County, Virginia school officials had determined that he suffered from an anxiety disorder so severe that they put him in special education and devised a plan to help, but Virginia Tech was never told of the problem. The disorder made Seung Hui unable to speak in social settings and was deemed an emotional disability, the sources say. When he stopped getting the help that Fairfax was providing, he became even more isolated and suffered severe ridicule during his four years at Virginia Tech. The condition, called selective mutism, prompted the Fairfax school system to develop a detailed special education plan to help ease Seung Hui’s fears so he might begin to talk more openly. Part of his individualized program in Fairfax excused Seung Hui from participating in class discussions, according to the sources, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the confidentiality of Seung Hui's records. Another part of the plan called for private therapy to resolve his underlying anxiety. The therapy and special provisions were "apparently effective," the sources say. But once Seung Hui left the safe and highly structured support system that had created a cocoon of support, officials at Virginia Tech were never told of his condition and never addressed the issue. Federal privacy and disability laws prohibit high schools from sharing with colleges private information such as a student's special education coding or disability, according to high school and college guidance and admissions officials. Those laws also prohibit colleges from asking for such information. The only way Virginia Tech officials would have known about Seung Hui's anxiety and selective mutism would have been if he or his parents told them about it and asked for accommodations to help him, as he had received in Fairfax. Experts say asking for help is an almost impossible task for someone with selective mutism. Seung Hui's parents, although cooperative with Fairfax school officials, might not have fully understood what was wrong and that their son needed help in college as well.
Richard Crowley, coordinator of guidance services for Fairfax, says high schools generally send transcripts to colleges with only a student's courses, grades and test scores, while information on race, sex, religion, and even the number of times a student has been suspended are considered optional pieces of information that a student can choose to disclose. "We don't send anything that has to do with special education," Mr. Crowley says. "If the parent, who has the authority, wants us to disclose to colleges that the student was in a special-ed program, we can do that and send whatever records they want. But that doesn't happen very often." The reason, explains Barmak Nassirian, with the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, is that in the competitive admissions process, students don't want to be at a disadvantage. As recently as 2003, parental pressure caused the College Board to stop flagging SAT scores for students who had been given special education accommodations while taking the test. Moreover, many colleges say they don't want to know because of the potential liability. "In soliciting a student's history of psychiatric treatment or diagnoses by treating physicians, you basically open a Pandora's box," Mr. Nassirian says. "Even if you should decide, for reasons that have nothing to do with medical circumstances, not to accept a student, you most certainly will have a case that will be litigated."
Washington Post By Brigid Schulte & Tim Craig