This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Jan. 10, 2011 - YouTube rants, classroom outbursts and reports of laughing loudly to himself garnered the alleged assailant of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords a reputation for bizarre behavior and even a college suspension. But when do tirades and odd actions become reason for alarm?
According to published reports, 22-year-old Jared Loughner was suspended from Pima Community College in Tucson, Ariz., last summer after police were called to the classroom on five occasions and he posted a YouTube video calling the college "illegal."
If an individual with the same history came to the attention of local college or law enforcement officials, the level of action against him or her would likely be the same as that brought against Loughner in Arizona: none.
Most colleges in Missouri and Illinois, including St. Louis Community College have assessment tools for determining if a student is a threat to self or others. But in many cases -- such as Loughner's -- the behaviors don't reach that threshold, according to STLCC media relations coordinator Patricia Matreci.
"It's all well and fine that you have this tool in place, but you just can't predict if and when this person is going to snap," Matreci said.
Public Safety Vs. Individual Rights And The Law
After the April 2007 Virginia Tech massacre by a student that left 32 dead, colleges started to pay more attention to student behaviors. St. Louis Community College, St. Charles Community College, Illinois Community College and Illinois State University began using the National Center for Higher Education Risk Management assessment, one of several such tools.
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 prevents schools from releasing student records, including those pertaining to conduct and disciplinary actions. But educational institutions can inform law enforcement authorities or other appropriate individuals if a student is deemed a threat to him- or herself or to others.
The behavioral intervention team at St. Charles Community College uses the risk assessment tool to assess the level and credibility of a threat, according to the dean of student development Yvette Sweeney.
"A student may say, 'Oh, I hate that person.' But if they're saying that, then we determine whether they have the means and the motive to do something," Sweeney said.
The team decides what actions, if any, to take next. These may include informing the local police department. In one case last year, after a student's psychiatrist informed the school that his client had threatened someone, the school passed that information along to the threatened individual.
Scott Lewis of Dallas, who helped developed the risk assessment tool, is researching a book on violence by students. He said that 2010 was the most violent year on record when it came to student perpetrators, and he labeled the situation a generational malady.
"We've got a generation of students who are woefully unprepared to respond to low-level stressors in an appropriate manner," Lewis said. "Take the Arizona student (alleged to have done the shootings): He's upset, but his response isn't to start a dialogue or to start a student organization; his response is to be disruptive, and if that doesn't work, go out and shoot people."
A student with a short fuse would cross paths with law enforcement only in very specific set of circumstances, according to St. Louis County Police media relations officer Rick Eckhard.
"It would only come to the attention of law enforcement if a crime is committed," Eckhard said. "There are a lot of people out there who may be upset, but it never leads to violence or breaking the law."
Exaggerated Beliefs About Mental Illness, Violence
Following Saturday's shooting at the Tucson grocery store, the internet tweeted and blogged armchair diagnoses for the suspect, the most popular of which was schizophrenia. But there is no record that Loughner was ever diagnosed with a mental illness -- although concerns about his mental state were expressed. The Arizona Republic reported that the community college, which expelled Loughner, told him he couldn't return until he got a "mental-health clearance," indicating that he posed no danger to himself and others.
Still, stigma and hysteria often link mental illness to violence and crime to a greater degree than is actually substantiated, according to Jackie Lukitsch, the executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness in St. Louis. And Eckhard agrees. "Normally, I don't see individuals with mental illnesses doing these sort of crimes," he said.
The U.S. Surgeon General's office does report that the likelihood of violence is increased in people diagnosed with severe psychosis, especially if they are not compliant with their medications. But statistics from the National Institutes of Health and the Surgeon General's office show the overall number of violent acts committed by people with schizophrenia and other mental illnesses is very small, and that these people are usually on the receiving end of violence:
- Those with mental illness are 10 times more likely than other people to be victims of violence.
- Among the 1 percent of the population with schizophrenia, only 3.6 percent engaged in serious violence, according to a recent NIH study.
- Most violent acts by the mentally ill are committed against people they know or family members, not against strangers.
"We can't just automatically assume that every person that shoots somebody has a mental illness," Lukitsch said.
