The tragic events that took place just a few weeks ago in Tucson, Ariz. — where 22-year-old Jared Loughner opened fire on a crowd, killing six and injuring 14 — raise questions about how colleges deal with mental health issues. Records at Pima Community College show that school officials were concerned about Loughner's erratic and sometimes menacing behavior. Indeed, Loughner was finally suspended this past September and told he could only return if a mental health professional cleared him to do so.
Looking back, it is easy to suggest that the college could have done more to prevent Loughner's actions. Pima administrators, for example, were free to share their concerns with law enforcement, but chose not to. Moving forward, however, we should avoid conflating a school's responsibility to provide mental health services to students with a duty to prevent these horrific actions.
So far, documents released by the college reveal no breaches of procedure or seriously flawed judgments by administrators. To the contrary, safety experts told the Wall Street Journal that, by and large, the school acted "diligently." Administrators made their concerns known to Loughner's parents. And while the college did not approach police, the Arizona Republic reported that "what may look like a psychotic spiral in hindsight, likely would not have been enough to have (Loughner) forced into psychiatric care, much less arrested."
Putting the onus on colleges to outright prevent acts like Loughner's would likely require students to give up more of our liberties than we feel comfortable with. Administrators are worried about liability. In a world where we expect school officials to stop every single Jared Loughner from acting, colleges would likely resort to mandatory leave and report students' troubles to law enforcement much more than they currently do.
Even Brown's existing mandated medical leave policies have been criticized by some students ("Psychological leave-takers miss U. contact," Sept. 27). And if reporting troubled students to the authorities were to become a standard response, it would undermine trust between the student body and administration. While preventative measures rooted in restraint have their place, they should not become go-to solutions to mental health problems.
Instead, the University should redouble its commitment to providing students with psychological services that are both comprehensive and easily accessible. We should strive to be more attentive to our own mental health, as well as to that of our friends and classmates. Psychological Services offers many resources we can take advantage of. But we should not hesitate to seek out professional advice if we are concerned not just for ourselves, but for someone else. Belinda Johnson, director of psychological services, reminded us that staff are available "at any time of the day or night" to offer support.
Sadly, it is doubtful the events in Tucson will mark the last time a mentally ill college student turns to violence. While many voices in the media seem intent on finding one entity to blame — be it Loughner's parents, a culture of incivility or college administrators — the Tucson tragedy cannot be explained so simply. We hope that as the public discourse regarding the shooting progresses, we hear less about who is at fault, and more about what can be done to help prevent such horrors in the future.
Editorials are written by The Herald's editorial page board. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.
