As tales of Cho's worrisome behavior continued to surface Wednesday, a renowned poet and author who taught the 23-year-old gunman called the notion that he was troubled "crap" and said he was downright "mean."

Nikki Giovanni said she immediately suspected Cho when she got word of the shootings. (Watch Giovanni declare at a Tuesday convocation, "We are Virginia Tech" Video)

"I knew when it happened that that's probably who it was," Giovanni said, referring to her former pupil. "I would have been shocked if it wasn't."

Cho's poetry was so intimidating -- and his behavior so menacing -- that Giovanni had him removed from her class in the fall of 2005, she said. Giovanni said the final straw came when two of her students quit attending her poetry sessions because of Cho.

"I was trying to find out, what am I doing wrong here?" Giovanni recalled thinking, but the students later explained, "He's taking photographs of us. We don't know what he's doing." (Classmates called Cho "question mark kid")

Giovanni went to the department's then-chairwoman, Lucinda Roy, and told her, "I was willing to resign before I was going to continue with him." Roy took Cho out of Giovanni's class.

"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," Giovanni said. "I've taught troubled youngsters. I've taught crazy people. It was the meanness that bothered me. It was a, really, mean streak."

Roy, who taught Cho one-on-one after removing him from Giovanni's class, recalled Cho exhibiting a palpable anger and secretly taking photographs of other students while holding the camera under his desk.