The call came a decade ago, from campus police at UC Berkeley, and it was so shocking that Kwang Ho Kim nearly dropped the phone.
Kim’s son, a freshman film major, was being charged with a misdemeanor. The straight-A student had dumped all his clothes on the bed and set them on fire.
Then, the father was told, his boy locked the door to his room and watched the flames.
“Other students had to break down the door to put out the fire and rescue him,” said Kim, 59.
Kim’s son was expelled and soon returned home to Orange County.
Over the next 10 years, Kim and his wife struggled to deal with the aftermath of what happened that day. They lost their money, their home, their status.
But the incident also sparked something else – a shift in the way Korean Americans in Southern California view mental illness.
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