April is the Cruelest Month: Cho Seung-Hui & the Virginia Tech Massacre

 

April is the cruelest month, breeding

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

Memory and desire, stirring

Dull roots with spring rain

-T.S. Eliot, “The Wasteland”

Is April the cruelest month? Join hosts Amy and Kevin as they discuss some of the atrocities of this bitter month and then go into detail about The Virginia Tech Massacre which occurred on April 16, 2007--the most deadly school shooting in US history. 

In this episode, we honor the victims and try to understand the strange and twisted mind of Cho Seung-Hui, a first-generation Korean who seemed to have everything he needed to live a good, productive life. So, what went wrong? 

Check out shooting survivor Kristina Anderson's Koshka Foundation for Safe Schools that she created in the aftermath of this terrible tragedy: https://koshkafoundation.org/

It is a non-profit dedicated to helping local community and school stakeholders work together to prevent, respond, and heal in the aftermath of school violence, after becoming one of the most critically injured survivors from the 2007 Virginia Tech tragedy. Shot 3 times, Ms. Anderson returned to graduate from Virginia Tech with a degree in International Studies and Foreign Languages, and is now a resource to school administrators, teachers and students within higher education and K-12 regarding violence prevention initiatives and ways to increase individual personal safety awareness. The Koshka Foundation also partners with law enforcement agencies and first responders to provide educational presentations on surviving an active shooter from a survivor’s perspective, and best practices in incorporating lessons learned.