Award Winning Poet Nikki Giovanni Had Virginia Tech Killer Removed from Class
Giovanni Said She Would Quit If Cho Seung-Hui's Wasn't Removed from Her Poetry Seminar
"I've taught troubled youngsters. I've taught crazy people. It was the meanness that bothered me. It was a, really, mean streak," Giovanni told CNN. "I know we're talking about a troubled youngster and crap like that, but troubled youngsters get drunk and jump off buildings; troubled youngsters drink and drive."
In the fall of 2005 Nikki Giovanni says she had to to put the best interests of her other students ahead of those of one very troubled young man. His writings and conduct disturbed her so much that she had him removed from class. She told her boss she would leave her post at the prestigious university if the young man was not removed.
Giovanni declared, "I was willing to resign before I was going to continue with him."
Students in Giovanni's writing class were unnerved by Cho's behavior which included taking pictures of them with his cell phone and not engaging in basic conversation.
"I was trying to find out, what am I doing wrong here?" Her students eventually alerted her of the covert picture taking. "He's taking photographs of us. We don't know what he's doing."
When Giovanni asked that he stop writing what she described as "weird" poetry he told her, "You can't make me."
"It was terrible. It was not bad poetry, it was intimidating," Giovanni said.
Giovanni was not surprised by Cho's rampage
"I knew when it happened that that's probably who it was. I would have been shocked if it wasn't."
Giovanni wrote and delivered an rousing poem for the campus wide memorial service. We Are Virginia Tech declared, "We are Virginia Tech. We are strong enough to stand tall, fearlessly. We have brave enough to bend to cry and sad enough to know we must laugh again."
Giovanni was first among a number of professors to sound the alarm regarding Cho's behavior. After Cho was removed from, Giovanni's boss, Lucinda Roy, tutored him privately and alerted campus officials of her concerns over and over again. The then-chair even developed a code word to alert her assistant if Cho every threatened her. She never had to use the codeword.
Giovanni came fame during the turbulent sixties with her first volume of poetry, Black Feeling Black Talk.
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Published by K D Griffin
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10 Comments
Post a CommentALI G: Booyakasha, check i' out. I is here wif my main man, poet Nikki G, my big bro from Staines. How is you become poet?
NIKKI G: We're communicators, it's in our blood.
ALI G: Blood, West Side. Sis, you is get, I mean, sorry you is my bro now, you is get some edumacation. You went to America?
NIKKI G: I went to Fisk.
ALI G: Tell me about how you is expelled for crack...
NIKKI G: It wasn't for crack.
ALI G: Wha'eve. Anyway you is still my main man, big shout out for poet Nikki G from VT.
I read a play he wrote for one of his creative writing classes - very disturbing, and poorly written as well.
I read a play that he wrote for a creative writing class. It was awful writing, and awful subject matter as well.
Amazing.
So many signs, but who could've done anything really until he actually commited a crime? It's very sad, but I'm not so sure that aside from psychological treatment, they could've really done much. :( Great article, though.
It seems like there were more than enough warning signs coming from this kid to alert several people to his capabilities. While I know that nobody could have predicted what would happen, perhaps those holding an authoratative role should have taken greater steps in removing him completely from the school before it got to this point.
Just another example of how authorities simply don't pay enough attention
This is incredibly disturbing. Makes one wonder, whose responsibility is it to do something about people like this? Of course, removing him from the college would have prevented this particular horror, but he may well have shot up a mall or other public place instead. What is the solution to problems such as this? Very scary.
First rape coverups and crime coverups on campus, now this -- what is happening at colleges and are our kids safe? I don't remember college being like this. When you're to the point of needing to use a safety codeword, the kid should be out of school, for crying out loud. Every single person who passed this one up needs to be questioned.
Wow. Even with all those warning signs...