Cho Seung-Hui was so clearly mentally disturbed that just about everyone who looked him in the eye all but ran screaming in the other direction. The twisted, blood-soaked essays he wrote for his English class scared the bejesus out of his fellow students—and remember that these are kids suckled on Grand Theft Auto and Reservoir Dogs. The poet Nikki Giovanni, one of Cho’s teachers, says that students were so terrified of him that many stopped coming to class...So what prevented anyone from taking this creature out of the dorms and off the streets? For starters, as the New York Times reported, privacy and antidiscrimination laws make it almost impossible for school officials to protect students from crazed classmates. If they try to expel a student from a dorm because they think he’s dangerous, they can be sued under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Recently, CUNY officials had to pay $65,000 to forestall a lawsuit by a student barred from her dormitory after her suicide attempt and hospitalization...The only people who might be able to take some action when a student shows signs of trouble—family members—are kept deliberately out of the loop. A 1974 law, known as the Buckley Amendment in tribute to its architect, former senator James Buckley, makes it illegal for administrators to tell parents almost any details about their child’s college life—including serious medical problems—without the student’s permission....Why We Ignore Madmen, Kay S. Hymowitz, City Journal, 4/24/2007
In this environment, the recommendation that well-trained teachers and perhaps even well-trained students should bear arms to class seems like the most rational idea yet heard in response to campus shootings. Don't expect to hear that from White Flag Reid or any other Democrat.
Luther
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