No Right to Remain Silent: The Tragedy at Virginia Tech

In the fall of 2005, Roy, then chair of Virginia Tech's English department, began a year of one-on-one work with a student whose professor found his affect and work content disturbing. No one knew just how disturbed he was, however, until he opened fire on faculty and students in April 2007, committing the ""largest mass murder by a single shooter"" in American history. Roy's book takes an unflinching look at Seung-Hui Cho, the day's horrific events, and the University's role in warning students and recovering afterward. Despite personal risk (her book will probably ""oblige me to move on"" from a home she loves), Roy is driven by a responsibility to tear down the Tech administration's ""wall of silence."" The book raises important issues regarding the limits of privacy, where a family's duties end and a school's begin, and how likely it is that more rigorous attention could lead to unnecessary suspensions and expulsions. Roy's book makes a difficult read not just because of the subject matter but also because, two years later, much seems unresolved; that Roy needs to expose petty academic politics (at an institution for which she has obvious affection) in order to make the case for more conscientious student care is dismaying.