"They had no time or money to look after his special problem even though they knew he was autistic."
This may be the socialist British press irresponsibly putting words in her mouth (and a "poor immigrant" line that our MSM may eagerly follow) but consider the following:
The parents owned a house in a decent neighborhood.
By media accounts, they own a dry-cleaning business.
Cho's sister attended Princeton. Even if she did so on a scholarship, there had to be costs picked up by the parents. She also interned with the DOS in Bangkok -- was every single expense paid by the government?
Cho attended, and boarded at, a state university. There's been no mention of a scholarship. Who paid the tuition, the dorm fees, the book fees and the living expenses?
Cho had a decent computer, printer (as evidenced by the "manifesto" exploited by NBC), and digital camera. Who paid for those?
Between the guns, ammo, rented car, target range practice, etc., Cho spent upwards of at least $2,000 in planning his rampage. Where did he get the money?
Finally, if Cho's mother was so concerned about his "autism" (it's obvious his problems were far worse than that, but defining psychosis as autism is a far more sympathetic hook, as in "we are all victims," even when we become mass-murderers), why send him away -- it was upwards of a 4-hour drive, and the kid didn't have a car -- to live and study at a public university? I'm sure there were schools closer to home.
It wouldn't surprise me to learn that the parents wanted the kid out of the house (out of sight, out of mind), and in so doing foisted a killer on society.
Keep in mind that the general myth in Europe is that, since we don't have (outrageously inefficient) government health care, everyone except the rich in this country goes without it, because no one, particularly the poor, oppressed minorities that Americans inhumanely expect to fend for themselves (sarc) can afford it.
Everything they make they spend on their kids- they live frugal ascetic lives. IN Fairfax look for the first dry cleaner shops open and the last to close. In Baltimore look forr the first liquor stores open and the last to close. They give EVERYTHING they make to their kids to help them succeed thru education. How does the owner of a dry cleaner shop send his daughter to Princeton? Back-breaking work and saving everything he can scrape up from her birth for the goal. And son to VT? VT like other Virginia state schools are actually bargain tuition for Virginia residents.
I do pity these people because they had a troubled kid who was never diagnosed. It can be emotionally paralyzing to raise a child like this and never have answers and just get up and work every day and go to bed and do it again.
If you have walked this walk with a troubled kid no one could give you answers about, you know what I mean and if you haven’t, you never will. I would not expect this mother and father to have a very long life span after all this.
No reasonable person has any business critiquing how they “paid” for their daughter to go to Princeton or what the daughter does with her life, which in an Asian cultural sense is also ruined now because no one from a “good family” will ever choose to marry her
If you knew the number of totally whacked out kids who are sent away to college you would be shocked.
Parents of really crazy kids get very tired of caring for them. Sending them away allows the parents to pretend to themselves that their kids are better and it's usually cheaper than putting them into an institution. Of course once the kid gets to college he gets into alcohol and other drugs that do not mix well with the prescription meds he is on and he's back in the mental hospital again. Sometimes the parents don't even come to the hospital, they want to distance themselves so much.